
Class __HQ3_L_ 
Book h^v^ 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



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SOCIAL PURITY 

OR 

THE LIFE of the HOME AND NATION 

INCLUDING 

HEREDITY, PRENATAL INFLUENCES, Etc., Etc. 



'// 



AN INSTRUCTOR, COUNSELOR AND FRIEND 
FOR THE HOME 

BY ^j ( ,' 

PROF, and MRS. J. 1 W. GIBSON 

ASSISTED BY 

W. J. TRUITT, M. D. 

(Formerly Associate Professor of Obstetrics. National Medical College, Chicago) 

AND 
OTHER NOTED SPECIALISTS 

Text Illustrated by Full-Page Photo and Half-Tone Engravings 
Drawn Expressly for this BooK by 
Herman Lindberg 

"It is the right of every child to be well born " 



J. L. NICHOLS & CO. 

Manufacturing Publishers on the Exclusive Territory Plan 
NEW YORK TORONTO NAPERVILLE. ILL. ATLANTA 



"Vice has no friend like the prejudice which claims to be virtue." 

— Lord Lytton. 
i 
'A pure mind in a chaste body is the mother of wisdom and deliberation." 

—Jeremy Taylor. 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 


Two Copies 


Received 


JUN 1 


1903 


Copyright 


Entry 


CLASS 0» 


XXc. No. 


COPY 


5 5 

B. 






Copyright, 1903, by 
J. L, NICHOLS & CO. 



This volume, including many illustrations, is protected by copyright, and any 
infringement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 



TO ALL WHO WISH 

TO LIVE PURE AND NATURAL LIVES, 

AND WHO WOULD BRING 

INTO THE WORLD 

BEAUTIFUL AND HEALTHY CHILDREN 

IN BOTH SOUL AND BODY, 

THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED. 



Authorities Consulted in the Preparation 
of This Work 



Wm. Acton, M. R. C. S. 

Mary Wood Allen, M. D. 

E. D. Babbitt, M. D., LL. D. 

D. Campbell Black, M. D., L. R. C. S. 
P. H. Chavasse, F. R. C. S. 

R. L. Dugdale. 
S. B. Elliot, M. D. 

E. B. Foote, M. D. 
Prof. F. C. Fowler. 
Prof. O. S. Fowler. 
Geo. F. Hall. 
Chas. C. Haskell. 
H. S. Hastings. 
Karl Heinzen. 

C. A. Hoff, M. D. 

Dio Lewis, M. D. 

Mary R. Melendy, M. D., Ph. D. 

Geo. H. Naphey, M. D. 

T. L. Nichols, M. D. 



S. M. Pancoast, M. D. 

L. C. Parker, M. D. 

Philadelphia Medical Journals. 

H. S. Pomeroy, M. D. 

Newton N. Riddell. 

P. C. Remindino, M. D. 

J. E. Scott, M. D. 

E. R. Shephard. 

Rev. B. D. Sinclair. 

Lyman B. Sperry, M. D.\ 

Alice B. Stockham, M. D. 

Rev. Sylvanus Stall. 

R. R. Sturgis, M. D. 

R. M. Tucker, M. D. 

R. T. Trail, M. D. 

Rev. Henry Varley. 

S. R. Wells. 

John D. West, M. D. 



INTRODUCTION 



Were we required to state in a few words the character of this 
book, we would say that it discusses in a general, as well as a special 
way, the hygiene of sexual life. It does not purport to be a treatise 
on medicine, but, on the contrary, it seeks, so far as possible, to avoid 
its use. 

Health, honor, wealth, pleasure, each stands ready to enter into 
our lives, if we are ready to pay the price. But in striving for wealth, 
we may be compelled to pay the price of our health; pleasure may 
come at our bidding, but honor may flee at his approach. Ignorance 
is the friend of vice, the companion of ill-health and misery. Our 
object is to awaken and enlighten men and women, and to create in 
them a desire to know themselves. 

Intelligence is the main hope for the redemption of a stricken race. 
The Great Teacher said, ''And ye shall know the truth, and the 
truth shall make you free." Not only must we be educated along 
the line of the sexual life, but the dangers from violating its laws must 
be burned into our very consciences. 

This book, in discussing the hygiene of life with reference to the 
sexual relations of man and woman, does not confine itself to the 
span of one life — a possible threescore years and ten — but to three 
times threescore years and ten. In the chapters on heredity and pre- 
natal culture, the influence of the lives which flow into one life, and 
the lives which may emanate from this are taken into account. Each 
new being coming into the world should be a veritable "Child of 
Light," in whom is no shadow of darkness or mark of disease. It 
should receive a hearty welcome into the home. Its coming should 
be anticipated with watchful and loving care. Every man and woman 
should know whether or not he or she is fitted for parentage; and if 
so fitted, the proper time and conditions for reproduction. 

If the amount of inherited suffering could be fully known and 
appreciated, thoughtful people would be startled at the responsibility 
of parentage, and would seek, as best they could, by proper study, 



INTRODUCTION. 

careful physical culture and correct habits of living, to give the coming 
generation a happier lot, so far as health and morals would do it. 

Maudsley, in his "Pathology of the Mind," says: "If it were 
desired to breed a degenerate human being, sinful, vicious, criminal, 
or insane, what would be the safest recipe? To impregnate his pro- 
genitors thoroughly with alcohol or with hypocrisy, with syphilis or 
with selfishness, with gluttony or with guile, with an extreme lust of 
the flesh or an extreme pride of life. When mankind has learned the 
ways by which degenerate beings have come to be, it will be able to 
lay down rules to prevent their production in time to come; but in 
order to do that, it must substitute for the notion of sin and its con- 
sequences in a life to come after death, the notion of fault or organic 
manufacture and its consequences from generation to generation in 
the life that now is." 

"If the penalties meted out to the impure are so many, there is yet 
comfort to the unmarried man in these pages, which show that perfect 
continence is quite compatible with perfect health. * * * Impurity, 
of course, leads downward to decay and death; and out of considera- 
tion for the law of self-preservation, any wise man will adopt the 
course of repressing his appetite, for the penalties which attend it are 
so inexorable as to be beyond accepting." 

It is our nature to be heedless of the future while enjoying the 
present blessings. We are naturally careless of the disease or death, 
misery or happiness, strength or weakness, wisdom or folly of those 
who are to live fifty or a hundred years hence. But the question, 
"Am I my brother's keeper?" comes to the honest conscience again 
and again, and presses for an honest, unselfish answer. 

What we are is our offspring's inheritance. Better, far better, 
that they have pure minds, sound bodies, impulses toward nobler and 
vigorous manhood and womanhood as an inheritance, than boundless 
wealth, with a corrupt body and vicious tendencies. We are each 
our brother's keeper in a very large sense. Our brother's keeping is 
in the reach of our present influence, and we are guardians of the 
future brotherhood. 

With an earnest hope and expectation that this book will 
strengthen and sweeten thousands of lives, we send it forth as an 
evangel of mercy and love. THE AUTHORS. 



CONTENTS 



Part One 
life, heredity, prenatal influences 

CHAPTER. PAGE. 

I The Origin of Life 9 

II Hereditary Influences 28 

III Prenatal Influences 55 



Part Two 
what a young woman should know 

IV The Girl at Home 76 

V Looking Toward Marriage — Girlhood 101 

VI Looking Toward Marriage — Essential 120 

VII After Marriage — Home 140 

VIII Wifehood— What a Bride and Mother Should Know 166 

IX The Mother and the Child 195 

X A Phase of Parent Study 211 



part Three 

WHAT A YOUNG MAN SHOULD KNOW 

XI The Growing Boy 226 

XII Secret Sin or Masturbation 240 

XIII A Life of Chastity— A Struggle „ 256 

XIV What a Young Man Should Know— Love 271 

XV Who Should Marry— Who Should Bear Children 291 

XVI What a Young Married Man Should Know 301 

XVII Confidential Chat with Husband and Wife 331 



Part Four 
venereal diseases— abortion— family— ventilation 

XVIII Venereal Diseases 346 

XIX Criminal Abortion 368 

XX Large or Small Families— Which? 383 

XXI The Climacteric Period 398 

XXII Ventilation 428 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

1. Family life versus single blessedness — Bachelor — Ideal family — Fussy 

old maid Frontispiece 

2. "Blood-marks of crime" — Progeny of depraved and ignorant parents 20 

3. Celebrities — The progeny of illustrious parents 29 

4. Like parents, like children — Mental and physical debility 44 

5. Like parents, like children— Health of body and mind 45 

6. "If a woman have long hair it is a glory to her" (I Cor. 11: 15) 58 

7. The two paths — What will the girl become? — A series of nine pictures to 

illustrate real life 59 

8. A sympathetic friend 74 

9. The daughter in the home 75 

10. Before marriage 90 

11. Love-making in revolutionary days 91 

12. A musical rehearsal 106 

13. Engaged to be married 107 

14. After marriage 150 

15. Faithful to duty— Grandma in revolutionary days 151 

16. Purity— From real life 170 

17. Ill-mated in age and disposition— A study 171 

18. "Cleanliness is next to godliness" 186 

19. Heavenly music 187 

20. Mamma and her jewels 202 

21. Happy and contented 203 

22. The offspring of idle, impure and ignorant parents— Actual specimens. . 218 

23. The offspring of virtuous and intelligent parents — Taken from real life. . 219 

24. Evening prayer — From real life 226 

25. What is home without me? 227 

26. The challenge— True to life 250 

27. Our darling boy 251 

28. The two paths — What will the boy become? — A series of nine pictures to 

illustrate the two paths 266 

29. Health, purity and innocence 267 

30. Maternal instinct 354 

31. Sunshine and her pets 355 

8 



PART ONE 



Origin of Life 

Heredity 

Prenatal Influences 



CHAPTER I. 

THE ORIGIN OF LIFE. 

Organic Life. The lowest form of anything in nature that may be 
said to have life is protoplasm. It marks the boundary-line between 
organic and inorganic nature. Perhaps it would be better to say that 
protoplasm is the beginning of organic life. But it does not in itself 
constitute organic life, but, as Professor Huxley says, "It is the phys- 
ical basis of life." 

All organic life originates in the cell ; all physical growth is by 
means of cells. But the basis of cell-life is protoplasm; it is a neces- 
sary constituent of all cells. 

Protoplasm as found in vegetable cells can not be distinguished in 
any way from that found in animal cells. It would seem, therefore, 
that the dividing-line between the plant and the animal must be in 
the cell itself, and not in the protoplasm. It is well to note here that 
plant and animal life approach each other as life-forms descend and 
diverge in the evolution of higher forms of life. To illustrate: the 
sponge, though classed as animal, can hardly be distinguished from 
the plant; but the horse is not much like the grass he eats. 

Animal Life Basis of Intellectual Activity. It will be seen that, 
when we place the origin of physical life in the protoplasmic cell, we 
have gone back as far as pure science can take us. Whence came the 
life of this cell? Science can not tell. It were the merest folly for 
the scientist to attempt to account for the origin of life within the 
narrow limits of his science. 

It is quite evident to the thoughtful observer that all intellectual 
activity has for its basis the animal life. Not a thought passes through 
the brain, not a wink of the eye, nor the drawing of a breath, but 
causes the destruction of multitudes of cells. Life can be preserved 
only by the rebuilding of these cells. Life, activity, vitality, come 
only through the constant death of myriads of cells. Life through 
death, and death through life, is the order of nature. All life is a 
struggle for supremacy. If one part finally overcomes the other, then 

11 



12 SOCIAL PURITY. 

comes rest — death. Emerson, in his Compensation, says: "Polarity, 
or action or reaction, we meet in every part of nature; in dark- 
ness and light; in heat and cold; in ebb and flow of waters; in the 
male and female; . . . in the centrifugal and centripetal gravity; in 
electricity, galvanism, and chemical affinity. Superinduce magnetism 
at one end of a needle, the opposite magnetism takes its place on the 
other end. If the south attracts, the north repels. ... An inevit- 
able dualism bisects nature, so that each thing is a half, and suggests 
another thing to make it whole; as, spirit, matter; man, woman; in, 
out; upper, under; motion, rest; yea, nay." 

Dualism Necessary for Reproduction. This leads us to consider 
the dualism necessary to the reproduction of the plant, the animal, 
man. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abid- 
eth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." — John xii, 24. 

The two essential parts of a flower are the pistil and stamen. The 
stamen produces the pollen, which, to the naked eye, looks like flour. 
When examined with the aid of the microscope, these small gran- 
ules are found to be symmetrical organisms, perfect in themselves as 
organisms. Within the pistil are ovules; these, too, are perfect as 
organisms. But unless the pollen and the ovule in a proper way be 
brought together, each fails to accomplish the purposes of its exist- 
ence, and must die. The two are essential to form a complete whole 
in the production of a perfect germ of the new plant. This dualism 
holds good in all the higher forms of both plant and animal life; and 
perhaps even in the lower forms of life. 

Male Principle and Female Egg. In the animal kingdom the 
same law governs the reproduction of animal life. The male .produces 
a live, active germ, perfect as an organism. This germ corresponds 
to the pollen in the flower. We may, for convenience, call this the 
male principle, or element. The female also produces a germ, perfect 
in itself as an organism. This is usually known as the ovum, or egg, 
though in most cases the egg includes much more than the life-germ. 
The ordinary hen's egg may be used as an illustration of all egg-life. 
In this the life-germ is but a small part of the egg] the larger part 
being food stored away for the support of the chick while in the shell. 

As in the case of the plant, so here the male principle must, in a 
proper place, and under proper conditions, come in contact with the 



THE ORIGIN OF LIFE. 13 

female germ, or egg. While both are perfect formations, neither has, 
in itself, vitality to produce a new life. Each is a half of a perfect 
whole. Each without the other dies. All females, from the lowest 
insect to the highest mammal, may produce eggs without the presence 
of the male, but all eggs thus produced are sterile. 

Animal Life. All animal life has its origin in the egg-germ. In 
all the higher type of animals, the male and the female have an inde- 
pendent existence; they are separate animals. In some of the lower 
forms of animal life, the sex-elements seem to dwell in the same body. 
Some of the lower forms, as the coral and sponge, are compound ani- 
mals. They sometimes multiply, or reproduce themselves, by divi- 
sion; that is, parts are broken off and become individuals, either 
simple or compound, similar to the parent. But even where animals 
thus multiply, they multiply also by the egg-germ. The two proc- 
esses of multiplying the species are well known and understood in 
plant life; but multiplication by division seems to us more out of 
the order of nature when seen in animal life; but this is merely 
because we are not so familiar with this form of life. 

Egg-Germ Vitalized by Male Element. In mammals and birds 
the egg-germ is vitalized by the male element while the egg is yet in 
the body of the female. 

The writer, while dissecting a clam in school, was instructed that, 
if he found a clam whose gills seemed to be thickened, he should 
remove a small quantity of the granular-looking substance, and place 
under the microscope. He did so, and was delighted to see a great 
number of little clams, perfect as to form and movements. Even the 
curved lines of the shell, which was to be, could be traced. These 
minute clams opened and closed while floating in water under the 
microscope. In the oyster, the clam and the like, the male and the 
female, elements dwell in the same body. These kinds of animals are 
known as hermaphrodites; that is, both the female and the male 
organs are in the same individual. The ova are impregnated in the 
body by the sperm of the same individual, before the eggs are expelled. 

The fishes were created "male and female." The female fishes 
have a large number of ova in an extensive ovary. A single codfish 
may produce from ten to twenty million eggs in one season. Not all 
fishes produce so many, but they, as a rule, are exceeding prolific. 



14 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Spawning Season. Each year fishes have their spawning season, 
when they run up rivers and smaller streams, and deposit their eggs 
in a suitable place. The male by instinct deposits the male principle, 
known as spawn, or milt, in the same place as the female. Thus the 
two forms of germ-life come in contact; from these spring a multitude 
of fry. 

Man has taken advantage of these conditions, and organized a 
system by which more of the eggs may be impregnated. During the 
spawning season, the fishes, both male and female, are seined, and by 
artificial means the sperm and the spawn are deposited in the same 
place, convenient for hatching. Nature's method is extremely waste- 
ful, as only a small fraction of the eggs ever come to maturity. By 
this artificial process a single female may be made to produce thou- 
sands of offspring. Fishes, as a rule, take no care of their young. 

In insects the eggs are fertilized by the male before leaving the 
body. Most insects deposit their fertilized eggs where the young 
larvae will be surrounded with abundant food. Fruit and trees are 
thus injured and in many cases destroyed, by being stung and 
wounded by the ovipositor of the female, in her efforts to deposit her 
eggs. We find in our plums, cherries, apples and the like, little 
"worms." These are the larvae of the insect that had, by instinct, 
so placed her eggs as to have the larvae well supplied with the pulp of 
the fruit. 

Man is much annoyed by these pests, and yet there is a compensa- 
tion. The larvae of some insects are natural scavengers. Most 
insects, after making preparations for the larvae, leave their young to 
shift for themselves. But there are notable exceptions to this. All 
branches of the bee-family take more or less care of the larvae; this, 
of course, includes the ants. 

A Study of the Honey-Bee is a most fascinating subject. We 
have space to note only a few points of interest. The drones are the 
males; the workers are females, but produce no eggs. The queen-bee 
produces all the eggs from which all the larvae of a hive spring. 

When a colony of honey-bees are led by instinct to produce a 
queen, they go at it in a systematic way. One larvae cell is especially 
set apart for the purpose of producing a queen. All the larvae near 
the queen-cell are stung to death. The favorite grub is fed on a 



THE ORIGIN OF LIFE. 15 

specially prepared food. Should there be two queens in a colony, 
one leads away a new colony. This is called swarming. 

Before the queen deposits any of her eggs, she takes an excursion 
abroad with one of the drones. In this meeting of the queen and the 
drone the eggs are fertilized. This is done but once in the life of the 
queen, but it is sufficient to vitalize all the eggs the queen may pro- 
duce during two or three years. 

The Two Great Divisions of the Animal Kingdom. Nature in her 
processes of reproduction arranges the animal kingdom into two great 
divisions. These divisions are known to the scientists as oviparous 
and viviparous. It must not be understood, however, that there is 
an impassable gulf between these two classes. As a rule, the eggs of 
the oviparous animals are nurtured, or " hatched," outside of the body 
of the parent. But there are exceptions to this rule. Some fishes, 
and perhaps other forms of animals, retain their eggs within the body 
of the female until hatched. 

The viviparous animals retain the young within the body of the 
mother until somewhat matured. More than that, the young are 
nourished by the mother's blood. 

The mammalia are vertebrated animals that bring forth living 
young, and nourish them with milk from the mother's own body. 
This definition is not all-inclusive, but it excludes all other forms 
of animal life. The last clause excludes the fishes named above 
as producing living young, and also such animals as the clam and 
oyster. 

The term viviparous includes the different divisions, or grades, of 
the mammalia. 

The marsupials are semi-viviparous. The young, when born, are 
not fully matured. The kangaroo of Australia and the opossum of 
America are examples of this class of animals. These animals have 
a sack, a kind of pocket, or pouch, on the outside of the abdomen, in 
which to carry and protect the young. While the young are still quite 
small and very imperfect, they are expelled from the womb of the 
mother and immediately placed in the marsupium, or sack, on the 
abdomen. When in this sack the lips of the half-developed and feeble 
animal are attached to the nipple and cemented to it by a secretion 
that exudes about the lips. A secretion of milk from the mother now 



16 



SOCIAL PURITY. 



nourishes the young. By this process the young slowly increase in 
size, until they become loosened from the nipples, somewhat as 
ripened fruit separates from the limb of a tree. For some time after 
they are sufficiently matured to run about, they run to the mother's 
marsupium for protection and nourishment. 

Man. — The highest form of the mammalia, of which man is the head, 
are known as placental mammals, or monodelphia. The placenta, 
from which this class takes its name, is the medium by means of which 
the foetus is nourished in the body of the mother. For the allotted 
time the mother pours her life-blood through this organ for the nour- 
ishment of the new life within. At birth the placenta passes from 
the mother, and is usually known as the after-birth. 

Semen Analyzed. Semen is the name given to the fluid produced 
by the genital organs of man, by which impregnation is effected. It 
is a whitish viscid fluid. It consists of three parts: (i) A transparent, 

colorless fluid whose chemical com- 
position is albuminous; (2) small 
granular corpuscles; (3) spermato- 
zoon. The last is the real life-pro- 
ducing principle. It would, perhaps, 
be incorrect to call the spermatozoa 
animals, but they are perfect organ- 
isms. A spermatozoon, uniting with 
the female germ, or ovum, under 
proper conditions, brings a perfect 
new being into existence. The other 
parts of the semen are merely 
1 'floats," or carriers for the sperma- 
tozoa. The spermatozoa are minute, 
elongated particles, consisting of a 
small flattened, oval body and long, slender filament, or tail. As seen 
under the microscope their movements are remarkable and consist 
mainly of undulatory and lashing movements of the tail. 

The semen is secreted from the blood by different glands. The 

spermatozoa are secreted, or they are developed, in the glands testes. 

By this it will be seen that the quality of this life-producing fluid 

depends upon the condition of the blood. These conditions, either 




HUMAN SEMEN AS SEEN UNDER 
A MICROSCOPE. 



THE ORIGIN OF LIFE. 



17 



good or bad, are not only stamped upon the life-fluid, but upon the 
offspring as well. 

A Single Spermatozoon is very small. When seen under the 
microscope it resembles a young tadpole in constant motion. In the 




A SPERMATOZOON VERY HIGHLY MAGNIFIED. 

young, but mature and vigorous animals, the spermatozoa are numer- 
ous and active. In the old or weakened bodies they are scanty and 
feeble, or absent. Such scantiness and feebleness will correspond 
with the vitality or debility of the individual in whom they are 
developed. 

The spermatozoa appear first in man at the age of puberty. They 
are the most numerous and vigorous from twenty to forty-five years 
of age. They, as a rule, disappear in old age. 

The size of the spermatozoa has 
little or nothing to do with the size 
of the animal. They are larger in a 
mouse ft than in a horse, and larger in 
the snail than in the dog. The 
spermatozoa of man are so small 
that over three million could be 
placed on a square inch of surface. 

Function of Ovum. As we know, 
the hen's egg is quite large, but the 
ovum, the life-germ, is small. We 
remember that most of the egg is 
food, stored away for the use of the 
chick, while growing in the shell. 
Now in all mammalia the mother nourishes her young with her own 
blood; hence there is no necessity for the storing away of food. From 
this we might suspect that the ovum of a female mammal is quite 




RIPE OVUM. GREATLY ENLARGED. 



18 SOCIAL PURITY. 

small. So it is; the human germ, or egg, is but tJt of an inch in 
diameter. 

Spermatozoa. It must be remembered that the spermatozoa of the 
mammalia are living, active semi-creatures, with the power of locomo- 
tion, while the ovum of the mother is passive, with no power to move 
itself from place to place. The ovum, in passing through the tube 
which leads into the womb from the place where it had its origin and 
growth, is moved by forces outside of itself, very much as food passes 
down the aesophagus into the stomach. In her book on Love and 
Marriage, Margaret Warner, in speaking about the action of the 
spermatozoon as it unites with the female ovum, says: " Under the 
microscope these active forms have been seen eagerly moving around 
and around the egg, until one, more fortunate than the rest, finds 
admission and dissolves into the substance of the egg, not to be finally 
lost, however, for, as we know, this inexplicable union results in the 
growth of a new creature like neither parent, and yet like both, each 
cell having given to the new life certain characteristics of the creature 
from which it was derived. ' ' 

Concluding Thoughts. We have traced in outline the origin of 
life, so far as science has revealed it. But what is life? One group 
of plasmic cells may produce a toadstool or an oak, a mouse or a 
man. Two micro-organisms uniting may evolve a Caesar or a New- 
ton. Whence come the moral and intellectual powers? Science and 
philosophy do not know. The plummet-line of reason or research 
can not sound these profound depths. 

But scientific investigation can and does read the laws which gov- 
ern the action of the physical, intellectual and moral powers of man. 

In most of the schools of the country, and especially the public 
schools, the principles of physiology and hygiene are taught. But 
one of the most important functions of life is, necessarily, ignored. 
Perhaps in some better, purer age, the reproductive functions of 
man may also be taught in the schools. 



CHAPTER II. 

HEREDITARY INFLUENCES. 

A New Declaration of Independence. Could we formulate a new 
"Declaration of Independence," it would read something like this: 
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for people 
to dissolve their ancestral fetters which connect them one with 
another, and to assume, among the people of the earth, a separate 
and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle 
them, it becomes them that they should declare the causes which 
impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident: 

That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among these is the right 
to be well born, that they may have unhampered life, perfect free- 
dom in the pursuit of happiness; that whenever any form of existence 
becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right, nay, the duty of the 
people to so alter it and to institute a new life, laying its foundation 
on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them 
shall seem most likely to effect the safety and happiness of mankind. 

All experience has shown that men are more disposed to suffer 
while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by altering the forms 
to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses 
evinces a design to reduce them to absolute despotism, it is their right, 
nay, their bounden duty, to throw off such bondage and to provide 
new guards for their future security. Such has been the sufferance of 
the sons of men. To prove this we submit the following propositions: 

We Are Not Equal. We are not equal because of inherited or 
prenatal influences. Some are well born with admirable traits of 
character, lofty aspirations and symmetrical physiques, while others 
are handicapped by impediments, physical, mental and moral. David 
recognized this fact when he said: "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, 
and in sin did my mother conceive me." The Lord passed by Moses 
and proclaimed: "The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffer- 
ing, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thou^ 

19 



20 SOCIAL PURITY. 

sands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no 
means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the 
children, and upon children's children, unto the third and fourth gen- 
eration." 

Like our Revolutionary fathers, we have not all the rights we 
claim. Like them we should seek to throw off the shackles that bind 
us if we would be true to our higher natures, our beet opportunities. 
We may so alter our conditions, so mend our ways of living and 
thinking as to secure the desired ends. 

Heredity or Prenatal Influence. In the discussion of this subject 
it is well to have a clear and definite understanding as to what is 
meant by the term heredity or prenatal influence. 

By prenatal influence we mean all those influences, mental, 
moral and physical, which, acting through the parents, stamp their 
impress — desirable or otherwise — upon the child before he comes into 
the world as a separate being. Dr. Sidney Barrington Elliot gives us 
this definition of heredity: 

Heredity Defined. "Heredity is that law by which permanent and 
settled qualities of the parents or of the more remote ancestors reap- 
pear in the child; while prenatal influence signifies the effect produced 
upon the future being by temporary conditions of the parents, as by 
temporary mental states (anger, fear, happiness), or by temporary 
physical conditions (activity, health, exhaustion of a part or of the 
entire body). " The latter refers to the time of conception or shortly 
prior to it. A distinction should also be made between hereditary 
transmission and the possession of faculties and qualities of the child 
which are due to impressions operating upon the mind of the mother 
during pregnancy. 

Professor Riddell says: "Heredity is the science of transmission. 
It deals with that process in nature whereby the characteristics of 
one generation are transmitted to the next. It is the perpetuating 
factor of biology and evolution. Considered in its broadest sense, 
heredity includes all those laws, factors and forces which enter into 
the origin and determine the character of the new life. 

"The great fundamental law is that 'like produces like.' This 
law is modified by a secondary law, namely, that the acquired char- 
acters of one generation are transmitted to the next, In a sense 



HEREDITARY INFLUENCES. 21 

these two laws stand in direct opposition to each other. The terms 
'fixed characters' and 'acquired characters' must be considered as only 
relative terms. There are in reality no 'fixed characters' in nature. 
Through the operation of the primary law the fixed characters of the 
species are reproduced and their established peculiarities maintained. 
Through the operation of the secondary law the acquired characters 
of each generation are transmitted to the next and become a part of 
its hereditary nature. 

"If the first were the only law of heredity, then the species must 
forever remain unchanged; both evolution and deterioration would be 
impossible. If the second law were the only one, or even the con- 
trolling factor, then the environment and conditions of each genera- 
tion would so modify the next as to destroy all established types and 
finally exterminate the species." 

We find, then, that heredity is a term applied to that law of living 
things whereby the offspring resembles the parents or other ancestors, 
the characteristics of one generation being repeated in the next, or 
some following generation. 

Atavism, or Intermittent Heredity, must be admitted as a fact. 
We frequently find physical appearances or some mental character- 
istic reappearing after they have been dropped for a generation or 
two. This is known as a division of heredity called atavism. 

Professor Kingsley remarks: "When the word heredity is used one 
is apt to recall only those striking instances of inheritance, as of 
musical ability, or physical peculiarities like the repetition of the 
'Bourbon nose' in successive generations of the royal family of 
France. It includes not only the fact that six-toed cats are apt to pro- 
duce six-toed kittens, but the really more wonderful fact that cats 
have kittens rather than some other form of animal life. In other 
words, it is through the action of heredity that all structural features 
of the parents are repeated in the offspring, and that in the develop- 
ment of the individual these are outlined and matured in certain fixed 
and definite ways. ' ' We are not satisfied with being told that this is 
natural. The inquisitive mind seeks to know why, and searches for 
information as to the methods which bring about certain results. 
Several theories have been deduced. 

Theory and Conditions. The same writer says; "A satisfactory 



22 SOCIAL PURITY. 

theory must fulfil, among others, the following conditions: (i) It 
must be in full accord with the facts learned by embryology. (2) It 
must allow, not only for the reappearance of general form and struc- 
ture, but of individual peculiarities as well. (3) It must at the same 
time allow for individual congenital variation. (4) It must permit of 
\he inheritance of at least certain variations and modifications. (5) It 
must explain the reappearance of peculiarities after they have been 
dropped for several or many generations. (6) It must at the same 
£ime admit of the participation of both parents in the formation of 
{he germ (fertilization), and permit, in certain instances, unfertilized 
eggs to develop. (7) It must, in cases of fertilization, allow both 
parents to perpetuate their peculiarities in varying degrees. ' ' 

The earlier theories ignored one or more of these conditions. In 
|he eighteenth century came the older evolution theory by which it 
was held that in the egg or spermatozoon was contained a minute but 
perfect repetition of the parent; that the development of the 
embryo was but the expansion or "evolution" of this germ. Other 
theorists showed that there was no such expansion of a minute germ, 
but that the embryo was gradually built up of apparently similar 
materials, and that the process was not a direct one. 

Different Theories. Charles Darwin, taking into consideration all 
the limitations outlined above, advanced the theory that, minute 
particles called gemmules are constantly thrown off from every cell 
pf the body, not only in the adult, but in every stage of growth; 
that these gemmules retain the impressions not only of the cells from 
which they come, but of the various conditions to which they have 
been exposed. These gemmules are supposed to circulate freely 
through the system, and by their union form the sexual elements. 
Hence, speaking strictly, it is not the reproductive elements nor the 
J3uds which generate new organisms, but the cells themselves through- 
put the body. If these gemmules exist, this theory would account 
for most of the phenomena of heredity. 

Francis Galton, who argued that, if these gemmules are constantly 
given off by the cells, if they circulate freely through the system, and 
if the reproductive elements are formed from their union, the intro- 
duction of another kind of gemmules will of necessity modify the 
Offspring. He therefore infused into the bodies of eighteen silver-gray 



HEREDITARY INFLUENCES. 23 

rabbits, a variety which breeds true to color, the blood of other kinds 
of rabbits, in some instances replacing half the blood. These eighteen 
rabbits produced eighty-six young, and in not one was there any 
tendency toward the other varieties, but all were pure silver-gray. 

Prof. W. K. Brooks then proposed certain modifications which did 
not materially strengthen the theory. 

In 1883, Prof. August Weismann formulated a new theory by which 
he reduced the whole question of heredity to one of growth. "The 
germ-cells form a continuous line from which at intervals the body 
grows up, lives its life and dies. ' ' But whatever the theory, the facts 
remain. They are experienced and observed on every hand. 

O. S. Fowler says: "Nor is this department of nature left to 
chance. Like every other, it is governed throughout, even to its min- 
utiae, by its laws, one of which is 'each after its kind.' Else our 
children might be born brutes or trees, at perfect random. But this 
law renders them like their parents, and thereby preserves the unity 
of both our own species and every other. This great law of things, 
hereditary descent, fully proves and illustrates in any required number 
and variety of cases, showing that the progeny inherits the constitu- 
tional natures and characters, mental and physical, of parents, includ- 
ing predispositions to consumption, insanity and all sorts of diseases, 
as well as longevity, strength, stature, looks, disposition, talents — all 
that is constitutional — and in those various degrees in which they 
obtain in parents, and even derive every physical, intellectual and 
moral element and shade of character directly from similar ones in 
the parents. ' ' 

Races and Nationalities. Races and nationalities have certain 
mental and physical peculiarities. There will be little difficulty in 
distinguishing a Chinese from an Indian, a Negro from a European, 
an Irishman from a German, an Englishman from an Italian, a 
Frenchman from a Turk, and these by physical distinctions alone. 
The intellectual characteristics are as widely marked as are the 
physical. We note the slow, stolid persistence of the Laplander, the 
intrigue and tyrannical duplicity of the Spaniard, the observant cun- 
ning of the American Indian, the conservativeness of the Chinese, 
the caution of the Scotchman, the provident and domestic traits of 
the German, the cruelty and voluptuousness of the Turk, the ready 



24 SOCIAL PURITY. 

wit of the Irishman, the alert vigilance of the Yankee, the proud and 
sturdy justice of the Englishman and the shrewd pertinacity of the 
Jew. 

The Jewish Characteristics. Probably the most strongly marked 
of all people is the Jew. Through all his captivities and wanderings 
to and fro over the earth his Jewish blood tells. From the scheming 
Jacob and the exacting Shylock down to the tradesman of our own 
time, he possesses the same shrewd, calculating propensities. Through 
all his varying changes he retains his religious teachings and beliefs, 
and practices his peculiar rites and ceremonies regardless of his sur- 
roundings. An idea once established in his mind is retained forever, 
and is re-established in the mind of his children. 

It was owing to this quality of the Jewish nature that made them 
receptive to the teaching and training that God, in early time, gave 
them. This nationality God chose as a medium through which to 
speak to mankind. To them he taught the idea of the one true God, 
and he kept them a separate people that through them he might give 
to the world its Redeemer. God said of that faithful Jew, Abraham: 
"For I know him that he will command his children and his house- 
hold after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice 
and judgment." 

George Eliot says of the Jew: "Can a fresh-made garment of cit- 
izenship weave itself into the flesh and change the slow deposit of 
eighteen centuries?" 

Family Traits. Not only races and nations, but families, from 
generation to generation, are noted for traits of character good or bad, 
honest or dishonest, temperate or intemperate, talented or stupid, 
generous or selfish, vile or virtuous, through every phase common to 
human natur 

The physical features are just as certainly marked, as, for example, 
the "Bourbon nose," alluded to before, and the peculiar lip of the 
Hapsburg family of Austria. 

But to be more personal, have you never seen the awkward gait 
of an uncle, or the comical squint or gesture of a grandparent in the 
boy in your own home? or have you never noted the dimple of an 
aunt, the tone of a mother's voice, or the musical laughter of a sister 
in your own daughter? Or sadder, have you never observed your own 



HEREDITARY INFLUENCES. 25 

defects renewed in the child of your love? Have you ever marked 
the transmitted gift of musical harmony, of eloquence, of patriotism, 
of statesmanship, or even the skilful handling of a needle or a tool? 

Inheritance of Noted People. History furnishes many examples 
of marked inheritance. For literary genius we present the names of 
Lord Bacon, whose parents were eminent for their mental and literary 
powers; Lord Byron, whose poetic genius was inherited from his 
talented mother, while from both parents were transmitted less desir- 
able qualities; Sir Walter Scott, whose mother was of a romantic 
nature, reveling in poetry and art; John, Charles and Samuel Wesley, 
whose parents were possessed of much literary ability, and whose 
mother was remarkable for her executive qualities. 

We must not omit Emerson, the essayist, poet and philosopher, 
whose ancestors for eight generations numbered among them a learned 
minister of the Gospel; also the Beecher family, every member of 
which possessed high scholarly attainments. But the cream of the 
whole family seemed to rise in the powerful eloquence of Henry Ward 
Beecher and his gifted sister, Mrs. Stowe, whom we may call the 
emancipator of the black man. The Adams family of Revolutionary 
fame is another example of intellectual force and moral excellence. 
It is said that the good traits of this noble family were augmented by 
their careful marriages. 

Mrs. Nansen, the cultivated wife of the world-famed Arctic 
explorer, is the product of a family distinguished for generations 
because of the number of professors it has given to Norwegian insti- 
tutions of learning. 

One of Frances E. Willard's ancestors was president of Harvard 
College; another was vice-president of the same institution; a third 
was pastor of the Old South Meeting-House, Boston; a fourth was 
architect of Bunker Hill monument, and a fifth, Miss Willard's grand- 
father, was a chaplain throughout the Revolutionary war; her own 
parents were people of exceptional force of character and fine sensi- 
bilities. 

Raphael, father and son, were distinguished artists. Mozart, 
father and son, were eminent musical composers. Mozart received 
his first lessons in music from his mother, and his sister was also a 
musician of considerable note. 



26 SOCIAL PURITY. 

The Bach family of Germany, which for upward of two hundred 
years was noted for its great musical ability, produced more than fifty 
artists. 

Military and statesmanlike qualities are shown in the Harrison 
family. We trace Benjamin F., the twenty-third president of the 
United States, back to his grandfather, William H., ninth president, 
and hero of Tippecanoe, and still further to his great-grandfather, who 
was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and to his great- 
granduncle, who was a Revolutionary officer. Along the line of 
statesmanship may be found the Pitt family, the English friends of 
our young nation in its time of distress. England found three of her 
most eminent statesmen in three succeeding generations of this family. 

Inheritance of Crime and Ignorance. On the other hand, crime, 
ignorance, vice and insanity are as much an inheritance as the talents 
and virtues. "If a man sows to the flesh, of the flesh he reaps cor- 
ruption." This is also true of nations, which are but the massing of 
individuals. History has again and again shown the fulfilment of the 
prophecy: "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given 
to a nation bringing forth fruits thereof." 

Spain, once one of the great nations of the world, through her 
cruelty and greed for gold, has been humbled to the dust. 

Rev. Henry Varley says: "The French people as a nation have so 
sinned away their physique that the splendid type of manhood which 
formed the First Napoleon's Guards is almost extinct." 

Byron's poetic genius was tainted by the licentious habits of his 
father and the violent and oftentimes melancholy temper of his 
mother. Lady Macbeth could not wash out the murderous blood- 
stains, nor can the vicious and criminal wash out the blood-mark of 
crime. 

Blood-marks of Crime. Defects of character, abnormal instincts, 
go through families like the measles or some other contagious 
disease. The James boys, the Younger brothers and the Daltons, all 
of whom were related, are well-known examples. We personally 
know a large family, many members of which are afflicted with a 
jealous, pouting disposition. In some, this is considerably under 
control. But of one member it was said by an observant pastor, "He 
belongs to the family, without the grace of God. ' ' 



HEREDITARY INFLUENCES. 27 

Dr. O. W. Holmes, in Elsie Venner, says: "It is frightful to be 
in an atmosphere of family idiosyncracies; to see all the hereditary 
uncomeliness or infirmity of body, all defects of speech, failing of 
temper intensified by concentration, so that every fault of our own 
finds itself multiplied by reflection like our own images in a saloon 
lined with mirrors. ... A house is like a large pod with a human 
germ or two in each of its cells; it is opened by the dehiscence of the 
front door by-and-by, and projects one of its germs to Kansas, 
another to Colorado, another to Chicago, and so on; and this that 
Smith may not be Smithed to death and Brown may not be Browned 
into a madhouse, but mix in the world again and struggle back to an 
average humanity." 

Investigation of Criminal Records. Investigation confirms the 
opinion that a proneness to yield to the habit of strong drink is 
handed from parent to child. M. Morel, who has made a profound 
study of this phase of the subject, says: "I have never seen the 
patient cured of his propensity whose tendencies to drink were derived 
from hereditary predisposition given to him by his parents. ... I 
constantly find sad victims of the alcoholic intoxication of their 
parents in their favorite resorts, the asylums for the insane, prisons 
and houses of correction. " 

Mr. A was a genial, good-hearted man, whom all his neigh- 
bors liked, despite his intemperate habits. His friends were wont to 
say: "He is his own worst enemy." Too late he learned that he had 
been playing with fire. His appetite had got beyond his control. He 
would go without drinking for weeks at a time, then the appetite 
would again assert its mastery, and the result was a "spree." His 
boys felt their father's disgrace, and one of them declared that he 
would never be like his father. But he little knew the power of that 
appetite which lay dormant within him. With his first glass that 
appetite awoke and held him in its grasp. In this he but repeated 
the experience of his two older brothers. The boy who said that he 
would never disgrace himself by drink filled a drunkard's grave before 
he was twenty-three years old. One of the older brothers made such 
a beast of himself that his wife was obliged to go to her childhood 
home for protection. The remaining brother is a shame to his friends 
and a curse to himself. 



28 SOCIAL PURITY. 

The Jurke Family. Professor Pellman, of the University of Bonn, 
Germany, gives the following facts, collected by himself, of Frau 
Ada Jurke, who for sixty years was a resident of Cologne, and who 
died there about a century ago: She was a confirmed profligate, 
addicted to all debasing vices, and frequently convicted of crime; was 
the mother of several children, and six generations of her posterity, 
numbering altogether 834 persons, can be traced. Professor Pellman 
located and obtained the history of 709 members of this remarkable 
family. One hundred and six were of illegitimate birth, 162 were pro- 
fessional beggars, and 64 of them died in almshouses. One hundred 
and eighty-one women lived lives of open shame, j6 were convicted 
and imprisoned for crime, and 7 have been executed for murder. 
Professor Pellman calculates that it has cost the state an average of 
$12,000 a year, or a total of $1,200,000, to care for the paupers of this 
family, to protect society against them and to punish their crimes 
during the last one hundred years. 

A somewhat similar instance is found in the Jukes family of New 
York. The discussion of that family will be found under another 
topic. From the similarity of facts and resemblance in names, we 
might almost take it for granted that Max Jukes was an American 
edition of Frau Ada Jurke. 

Relation of Heredity and Mental Dulness. A deficiency in 
mental qualities can be traced to a deficient ancestry. Many a 
dull child, the trial of his teachers, is but the outcome of a torpid, 
sluggish-minded parentage. Dr. T. Alexander Mac Nicholls, 
of the city of New York, tells in the June, 1901, number of 
the Philadelphia Medical Journal of an investigation that he con- 
ducted for the purpose of determining the relation of heredity and 
mental dulness. Of the 10,000 children examined, 885, or 8.8 per cent., 
showed greater or less mental debility. Of these 885 children, the dul- 
ness of 40 was supposed to be due to the surroundings and physical 
conditions, which include poverty, defective sight and hearing, and 
general constitutional weakness; 221 were classed as due to heredity; 
471 owed their stupidity to drunken parentage. Of the remaining 153, 
no definite information could be obtained. The children examined 
had good hygienic surroundings, with a few exceptions. Many of 
them having defective eyesight and hearing improved or were relieved, 




Copyright, 1903, by J. A. Hertel. 

7. Guiteau, the assassin of President Garfield. 

8. Prendergast. the assassin of Mayor Carter H. Harrison. 

9. Antonio Probst, a brutal murderer who confessed that he killed seven persons. 
10. Czolgosz. the assassin of President McKinley. 

BLOOD-MARKS OF CRIME-PROGENY OF DEPRAVED AND IGNORANT PARENTS. 




CELEBRITIES-THE PROGENY OF ILLUSTRIOUS PARENTS. 



Henry W. Beecher. 
Harriet B. Stowe. 
Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
Sanzio Raphael. 



Theodore Roosevelt. 
Sir Walter Scott. 
Benjamin Harrison. 
Wolfgang A. Mozart. 



Frances E. Willard. 
Chas. Darwin. 
Geo. Eliot. 
William H. Harrison. 



HEREDITARY INFLUENCES. 29 

while other physical infirmities were greatly modified or entirely 
removed; but the mental deficiencies remained. Dr. Mac Nicholls also 
traced the family histories of 463 children in 150 different families, 
through three generations. Seventeen were bright in some one study, 
as music or drawing; 403 were generally deficient; 17 had neurotic 
fathers; 78 neurotic mothers; 313 had drinking fathers; 51 had drink- 
ing mothers; 43 were of neurotic grandparents, while 265 had drinking 
grandparents; 246 had parents and grandparents who were addicted 
to drink. Two per cent, of these children had parents of less than 
average intelligence. Eighty-seven per cent, of these children were 
mentally deficient, while 76 per cent, had some organic disease or 
some neurotic affection. 

By way of contrast he gives the results of an investigation of 231 
children of 51 families of total abstainers. Of these, less than 3 per 
cent, were dull, and but 18 were troubled with neurosis or any organic 
disease. 

Again he takes three classes of people and the results of this 
investigation, which show a wide difference, teach a strong temper- 
ance lesson. 

The first is a study of 24 families of drunken parents, who had 113 
children. Of these children, 93 had organic diseases, 66 were men- 
tally deficient, 7 were idiots, 8 were dwarfs, 7 were epileptics and 16 
were drunkards. 

The second study was of j6 families of moderate drinkers, who had 
236 children. One hundred and eighty-six of them had organic dis- 
eases, 169 were of feeble intellect, 8 were idiots, 8 insane and 21 
were drunkards. 

The third study was of 31 families of total abstainers who had no 
neurotic diseases. They had 1 16 children, of whom 20 had organic 
diseases, 3 were mentally deficient and 1 was a drunkard. 

The foregoing studies with their accompanying array of facts show 
that there is a marked relation between the use of alcohol and mental 
deficiency, and that the bridge of heredity connects the two. Those 
conditions which impair or rob the nerve tissues, or otherwise affect 
or impede the process of growth, are just the conditions to transmit 
deficiencies of mind and body. What can do this more effectually 
than the continued use of alcoholic stimulants? 



30 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Was He Responsible for His Crime? In the state of Connecticut, 
in July, 1900, a mere boy — only sixteen years old — was executed for 
murder. He was the direct product of a vicious and debased ancestry 
of two or three generations. With scarcely a vestige of purity in his 
veins, this poor boy was made a victim of the law by the pernicious 
habits of those who bore him and those who preceded them. Note 
the line from which he sprung, then wonder not at the deed com- 
mitted. The father was a feeble-minded drunkard, having a brother 
who was an epileptic. The mother was not only short of intellect, 
but died drunk on the street. Her sisters were all drunkards, and her 
brother died insane. His father's father was an epileptic, and his 
mother's father died insane. His grandmother on his mother's side 
was a drunkard, an epileptic and a prostitute. Can three more 
unfortunate, debasing conditions of the human kind be combined in 
one person? 

What a scourge upon society! And the worst of it is, that a nation 
will consent to the prostitution of its commonwealth for a sum of 
money. 

Statistics and Facts. Through hereditary influences insanity, idiocy 
and crithe are on the increase, and according to census and police 
reports are out of proportion to the increase of population. 

In relation to crime, the United States census reports for the years: 

Ratio to 
Year. Prisoners. Population. 

1850 6, 737 1 in 3,442 

1860 19,086 1 in 1,647 

1870 32,901 1 in 1,171 

1880 58,609 1 in 855 

1890 83,329 1 in 757 

Some criminologists have disputed the figures prior to 1880, deem- 
ing them unreliable. Carefully compiled statistics of the state of 
Pennsylvania for the years 1880 and 1890 show the following figures, 
which confirm the United States statistics for the same years: 

Per Cent. 
1880 1890 Increase. 

Population of State of Pennsylvania.... 4, 282, 891 5,248,574 22.5 

Inmates of Penal Institutions 5,449 7,340 34.7 

Defectives 6,070 9,712 60. 



HEREDITARY INFLUENCES. 



31 



In the city of New York the reports show that in the last ten years 
the population has increased 33/^ per cent., while crime has increased 
more than 50 per cent. 

In the city of Chicago the police reports, showing the number of 
arrests for the last ten years, bear witness to the same conditions. 



No. of 
Year. Arrests. 

1884 39,434 

1885 40,998 

1886 44,505 

1887 46,505 

1888 50,432 



No. of 
Year. Arrests. 

1889 48,119 

1890 62,230 

1891 70,556 

1892 89,833 

1893 96,976 



In relation to idiocy, the United States census reports are as fol- 
lows: 

No. of Ratio to 

Year. Idiots. Population. 

1860 18,865 1 in 1,400 

1870 24,527 1 in 1,270 

1880 76,895 . 1 in 700 

1890 95,000 1 in 600 



In regard to insanity, the showing is no better. 



Year. 



No. of 
Insane. 



1850 15,610 

1860 23,999 

1870. 37,432 

1880 91,997 

1890 106,485 



Ratio to 
Population. 

1 in 1,485 

1 in 1,310 

1 in 1,031 

1 in 600 

1 in 570 



From the foregoing figures, and a study of relative facts, we can 
but see that the habitual criminal is largely the product of vicious 
parentage, and that heredity bears the same relation to the idiot, the 
insane and other defectives. 

In Illinois the hospitals for the insane discharge about 900 per 
year. In the same state, the asylum for the feeble-minded has sent 
out 202 in the past six years. These persons are considered by the 
authorities sufficiently recovered to be discharged and to merge again 
in society. It is safe to say that among these are quite a large pro- 
portion who take upon themselves the responsibility of parentage. 

So far as they themselves are concerned, the result of the treatment 



32 SOCIAL PURITY. 

received at these institutions is all that could be expected, and in 
many cases all that could be desired, but what about their progeny? 

The Grisettes of France are another instance of moral degeneracy. 
Victor Hugo, in Les Miserables, thus speaks of Fantine, one of his 
heroines: "She was one of those beings who spring from the dregs of 
the people; issuing from the lowest depths of social darkness, she 
bore on her brow the stamp of the anonymous and the unknown. She 

was born at M , of what parents? Who could say? She had no 

family name, as she had no family. She received the name given her 
by the first passer-by, who saw her running the streets barefooted. 
She received a name as she received the rain from Heaven when it fell 
upon her." Her child came in the same way, unnamed, save for the 
pet name given her by her childlike mother. 

We also read that Rebekah deceived Isaac, her husband, and 
taught Jacob to do the same; he in turn was deceived by his sons, and 
Er, the son of Judah, who counseled the sale of Joseph, was wicked 
in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him. 

In the case of Chris Merry, recently tried in Chicago for the 
murder of his wife, a plea was made that he was a victim of hereditary 
frailties, and there were circumstances leading to the dreadful deed 
just as certain in results as the germination of the seed and its devel- 
opment into ripened grain, and that, therefore, he was not responsible 
for the murder. 

Heredity Versus Environment. But we hear some one say: "Are 
not these instances largely the result of environment?" That environ- 
ment has much to do with it we admit, but do not our inherited 
instincts and traits create and maintain our environment, and limit 
our personality? 

The late Professor Drummond said: "The function of environ- 
ment is not to modify, but to sustain. In the organism lies the prin- 
ciple of life." 

The bird makes its home in the airy branches of the tree above the 
dirt and dust, the bear in the dark hollow at the foot of the tree. 
What is home and contentment to one man would be hell to another. 
Purse and health taken into account, our environments are what we 
make them. They are the embodiment of our conceptions of good. 
A family of musical ability will seek to impart the same to their young 



HEREDITARY INFLUENCES. 33 

by placing musical instruments and instruction in their reach and 
thus increase their inherited talent. Parents of scholarly attainments, 
realizing the benefits of the same, will surround their children with 
books. Those of inventive genius will have machinery and curious 
contrivances on every hand. Spiritual natures will impart and develop 
wisdom in things divine. 

If environment makes all the difference, how is it that respectable 
families of intellect and genius, who have been reduced by unfortu- 
nate circumstances to extreme poverty, have yet maintained their 
integrity, and to a large degree their mental faculties, though sur- 
rounded by the ignorant and vicious? 

With the same environment there is often wide difference in the 
disposition, talents and moral tendencies of families, owing to those 
traits that are inborn, and not to their surroundings. We are accus- 
tomed to the thought that education will overcome our natural bent, 
that post-natal culture will do everything, that that which we have 
inherited may be thrown off as a loose garment. Not so; it will only 
be at the expense of a long-waged and desperate battle, supplemented 
by God's grace, the most potent factor. It is true that a bad char- 
acter may be improved by a good environment, and a good one 
lowered by evil associations, but are they changed proportionately? 
How many of us would without hesitation take into our homes a 
child of the Juke family? 

A Select Glass. We have seen that hereditary influences for good 
or evil do exist, that they work in the blood like ferments, that our 
scholars and geniuses come from a select class. As Dr. Holmes 
says: "Our best fruits come from well-known grafts — though now and 
then a seedling apple like the 'Northern Spy' springs from a nameless 
ancestry and grows to be the pride of all the gardens in the land. ' ' The 
"Northern Spy" is illustrated in the human species by such men as 
Lincoln, Garfield and Grant. It is often noted that the children of 
illustrious men are sometimes very ordinary persons. Many times 
they are merely eclipsed by the brilliancy of their fathers' reputation. 
There are several ways of accounting for these seeming contradictions. 
In the sixth condition of a theory previously noted, it was stated 
that "We must admit of the participation of both parents in the forma- 
tion of the germ," and in the seventh, "It must be allowed that both 



34 SOCIAL PURITY. 

parents perpetuate their peculiarities in varying degrees." We must 
also recognize the fact that they transmit their defects as well as their 
perfections. 

Heredity Modified by Marriage. A man may marry into a family 
mentally and physically inferior; also he may cloud the mind of his 
child by a degrading appetite or a debasing habit. Then again we 
observe many married couples with seemingly strong, vigorous con- 
stitutions, who were able to perform a surprising amount of labor, 
yet who gave birth to weak, sickly, short-lived children. Why is 
this? The parents gave all their strength and vitality to the work in 
hand, and little was left to be incorporated in the life of their chil- 
dren. The daughters of the past and present generations are often 
compared with their grandmothers. We are told that our grand- 
mothers reared large families, worked in the fields with their hus- 
bands, did their housework, beside the spinning, weaving and knitting 
for the family. Is it any wonder that our physical resources are 
small? So, many intellectual giants and specialists consume their 
force, and there is no like legacy for their offspring. It is also pos- 
sible that they may have so much mental development and so little 
of the animal that they have no offspring to bequeath anything to 

Much native ability may be found in children of great men, were 
there but the occasion to call it forth, as in the case of military 
achievement or statesmanship. 

Our Heritage and Responsibility. We are here with our heritage 
of liberty or bondage, our defects of body that unfit us for service, or 
our mental frailties that limit the action of our will, or the range of 
our thought. Some of us are ready to cry with Paul, "O wretched 
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" 
What are we to do about it? Remain in bondage? Allow ourselves 
to be overpowered, to submit as slaves without a struggle? Shall you 
or I say, "I am not responsible for this or that defect of character; I 
inherited it?" 

Dare we say, "I shall not be held accountable for this or that act 
of lawlessness because it was instilled into my very being by a guilty 
ancestor?" My friend, we inherited the tendency, not the act. The 
yielding to it is our own individual act. For this we are responsible. 
Though in bondage, we are also endowed by God with a certain 



HEREDITARY INFLUENCES. 35 

amount of intelligence and a will to choose, and there is a possibility 
toward, and an attainment of, a higher standard. If wrong has been 
committed, the last step may have seemed imperative, but the first 
step is generally one of choice. A drunkard may not be to blame for 
having committed murder while crazed .with whiskey, but he is to 
blame for tasting the vile stuff. A woman may have a natural talent 
for the stage, but that does not necessitate her becoming an actress. 
Because of our infirmities we shall be hindered, the fight will be the 
fiercer, the struggle more intense. "But He knoweth our frame, He 
remembereth that we are dust." 

"To whom much is given, much will be required." We are not 
responsible for our coming into the world, nor for our inherited 
imperfections, but we are responsible for our efforts to get rid of 
them. It is true that some are capable of doing more and better than 
others. The parable of the "Talents" teaches that we are to be 
rewarded for our efforts. 

Exercise of the Will. A weak will grows stronger by exercise. 
If the will power is exerted at every approach of temptation, it will 
in the end control or greatly modify the inherited tendencies. 

Dr. Holmes says: "There are people who think that everything 
may be done, if the doer, be he educator or physician, be he only 
called in season. No doubt, but in season would often be a hundred 
or two years before the child was born; and people never send as early 
as that." If everything cannot be done, something can, so let us 
call the doctor at once. Let the doctoring begin now. Let the train- 
ing, the molding, the educating commence immediately. Let no time 
be lost; leave no legitimate means untried. Let us make it hard for 
our children to do wrong and easy for them to do right. 

Cultivation of Fruits and Plants. A noted horse-breeder says : "I 
can breed to pretty much any pattern I choose." All kinds of fruits 
and plants have been improved by cultivation, each of which would 
go back to its original condition if left to itself. "The sour, green 
crab has been changed into the 'Pound-Sweet' and the luscious 'Bell- 
flower;' the wild rose of the prairie into a thousand varieties." 

The world has always had its sour crabs and noxious weeds in 
characters like Dickens' Fagin, or Luetgert and Chris Merry in real 
life. But what is done for the regeneration of this class? Crime 



36 SOCIAL PURITY. 

must be punished and society shielded, but is there not some pre- 
ventive of the conditions which produce the criminal and the crime? 
The same antecedents will continue the same production. 

All reforms must be based on the laws of heredity. These laws 
must be practically applied before the nations of the world are rid of 
that dread curse of humanity — intemperance. Vice and crime can 
only be eliminated by attention to those laws which are the founda- 
tion upon which the life and character of the individual is built. If 
we would rid our communities of criminals, our children must not be 
begotten by blind chance. If each new life partakes of all that pre- 
ceded it, that which precedes should be of the choicest pattern. 

Legislation and Education Necessary. It does seem that some 
legislation might be brought about to prevent marriage among vicious 
people and confirmed criminals. 

Education plays an important part in correcting the effects of a 
polluted inheritance. It has been suggested that mission schools and 
social settlements do a world of good in discouraging the criminal 
tendency, and for that reason the state should turn its attention to the 
moral education of children of criminal parentage. 

Dr. Napheys says: "A child born with a tendency to some vice or 
intellectual trait, may have this tendency entirely overcome, or at 
least modified, by training. So, also, virtues implanted by nature may 
be lost during the plastic days of youth, in consequence of bad associ- 
ations and bad habits. Education can therefore do much to alter 
inherited mental and moral qualities." If training and education 
tend to uplift mankind, then let each prospective parent endeavor to 
train, educate, christianize self, and thus the coming child, who in 
turn shall bequeath nobler qualities and a diviner life to future gen- 
erations. 

What the Father and Mother Transmit to Their Children. What 
practical good shall we obtain from the discussion of this theme, aside 
from that already noted? It is the opinion of physicians and scientists, 
who have made this subject a study, that each parent exercises a 
special influence over the child, according to its sex. Some thinkers 
believe that the father transmits to the daughters the form of the 
head, the framework of the chest and of the superior extremities, 
while the conformation of the lower portion of the body and the 



HEREDITARY INFLUENCES. 37 

inferior extremities are transmitted by the mother. With the sons 
this is reversed. 

They derive from the mother the shape of the head and of the 
superior extremities, and resemble the father in the trunk and inferior 
extremities. From this it therefore results that boys procreated by 
intelligent women will be intelligent, and that girls procreated by 
fathers of talent will inherit their mental capabilities. 

Napoleon said that what the French nation most needed was 
mothers. It is supposed that he meant intelligent mothers. "The 
mothers of a nation, though unseen and unacknowledged in the halls 
of legislation, determine in this subtle manner, the character of the 
laws." History and observation show a large number of women who 
reflect their fathers' genius and intelligence. Among these we cite 
the names of Madame de Stael, Margaret Fuller, Mary Somerville 
and Maria Mitchell. 

Also many men of note have attributed their success in certain 
pursuits to qualities which they themselves felt that they had received 
from their mothers. Of these are Scott, Burns, Napoleon and Byron. 

Inheritance Neutralized by Opposite Qualities. We have spoken 
before of the combined influence of the parents upon the child. The 
desirable qualities transmitted by one parent may be neutralized in 
the child by the opposite qualities of the other parent, hence the wis- 
dom of a careful selection of a life partner. 

It is Dr. Stall's opinion that, while too much importance can not 
be placed upon the subject of heredity, the inheritance which we 
receive not only from our parents and grandparents, but even from 
our great-grandparents, and while it is true that all that can be 
acquired in character and culture, both intellectual and physical, is 
transmitted from the parents to their children; yet possibly that which 
by far the larger factor in determining the physical, intellectual, 
social and moral endowment of the child is found in the influences 
which mold and fashion the child during the months which lie 
between the period of conception and the time of. birth. Of this 
period we shall speak in another chapter. 

Heredity Counteracted by Other Forces. Up to the present time 
we have discussed only those fixed and permanent characteristics 
which are handed down from parents to children. We have seen that 



38 SOCIAL PURITY. 

the living of to-day are the product of all that have preceded them. 
All the factors of the past are united in the present generation. We 
have seen that the basal law of heredity is "that like produces like." 
But if this law were not counteracted by other forces, each child 
would be an exact copy of his predecessors. That this is not true, we 
have only to look around us to prove. In the same family may be 
seen children of entirely different dispositions and appearances. It 
must be admitted that other forces are at work to change or alter the 
direct line of heredity. There can be no reasonable doubt that the 
transient conditions of the parents, either physically, mentally or 
morally, previous to conception, do make impressions upon the new 
life. It is also recognized by eminent physicians and scientists that 
there is a subtle sympathy between mother and child while the little 
one lies so near her heart. 

Of these counter influences we shall speak in the following 
chapter under the head of Prenatal Influences. 



CHAPTER III. 

PRENATAL INFLUENCES. 

Definition. By prenatal influences we mean those temporary 
operations of the mind or physical conditions of the parents previous 
to birth, which stamp their impress upon the new life. 

We may consider this subject as one which naturally divides itself 
into three periods: the preparation which precedes conception, the 
mental, moral and physical conditions at the time of conjunction, and 
the environment and condition of the mother during the period of 
gestation. 

A. E. Newton says: " Numerous facts indicate that offspring may 
be affected and their tendencies shaped by a great variety of influences, 
among which moods and influences more or less transient may be 
included." 

Dr. Stall says: ''Prenatal influences are both subtle and potent, 
and no amount of wealth or learning or influence can secure exemp- 
tion from them." 

Dr. John Cowan says upon this subject: ''The fundamental prin- 
ciples of genius in reproduction are that, through the rightly directed 
wills of the father and mother, preceding and during antenatal life, 
the child's form of body, character of mind and purity of soul are 
formed and established. That in its plastic state, during antenatal 
life, like clay in the hands of the potter/ it can be molded into abso- 
lutely any form of body and soul the parents may knowingly desire." 

Cause and Effect. As to methods which produce these effects we 
are somewhat in the dark, but that certain effects are produced by 
certain conditions is manifest. 

Prof. O. S. Fowler says: "For precisely the same reason that 
children inherit the constitutional or permanent character of parent- 
age, do they also take on those particular parental conditions existing 
at the time they receive being and character. In other words, as they 
inherit the co7istitutional character of parents, so when circumstances 
excite even feebler faculties in the latter to temporary predominance 
long enough to affect the character of those materials employed in the 

39 



40 SOCIAL PURITY. 

manufacture of life and mentality, children imbibe along with their 
very being these temporarily prevailing characteristics of parentage 
by the action of that same great law which transmits the permanent 
physiology and mentality when they predominate. ' ' 

We might cite many instances where a genuine sympathy exists 
between mother and child, ''organ for organ, part for part." 

Dr. Elliot says on this subject: "The child's body is growing 
rapidly in all directions, building material is plentiful, and the ener- 
gies that can utilize it seem tireless. If any portion of the mother's 
body, whether it be an intellectual faculty or the stomach, is either 
continuously or intensely active, the same portion in the child seems 
to be stimulated to increased growth; and increased growth means 
increased power. . . . The manner in which the influence is pro- 
duced on the father's side is still more obscure. The seed seems 
stamped with the imprint not only of his permanent characteristics 
(heredity), but also of his temporary conditions of mind and body 
(prenatal influence), and these have their place in determining the 
character of the offspring. ' ' 

Like Parents, Like Children. It is folly to expect strong and vig- 
orous children from weak and sickly parents, or virtuous offspring 
from impure ancestry. 

The farmer breeds only from his best stock. Dr. James Foster 
Scott tells us that purity is, in fact, the crown of all real manliness; 
and the vigorous and the robust, who by repression of evil have pre- 
served their sexual potency, make the best husbands and fathers, and 
they are the direct benefactors for the race by begetting progeny who 
are not predisposed to sexual vitiation and bodily and mental degener- 
acy. These are laws which are universally recognized by all breeders 
of stock and by those who have made a study of the races of mankind. 

Hysteria in the mother may develop insanity in the child, while 
the drinking habits of the father may produce not only a like habit in 
the child, but also epilepsy or some form of insanity. 

Responsibility of Parents. Selden H. Tascott says: "Ungoverned 
passions in the parents may unloose the furies of unrestrained mad- 
ness in the minds of their children. Even untempered religious 
enthusiasm may beget a fanaticism that can not be restrained within 
the limits of reason. ' ' 



PRENATAL INFLUENCES. 41 

In view of the preceding statements, what a responsibility rests 
upon the parents! No step in the process of parentage is unimpor- 
tant. From the lovers' first thought of marriage to the birth of the 
child, every step of the way should be paved with the snow-white 
blossoms of pure thought. Kindly words and deeds should bind the 
prospective parents more closely together. Not mine and thine, but 
ours % should be the bond of sympathy. Each should be chaste in 
thought and word and deed as was Sir Galahad, who went in search 
of the Holy Grail, saying: 

"My strength is as the strength of ten. 
Because my heart is pure." 

What preparation shall the father make for the coming child? 
Perhaps the following instance from the pen of Dr. Dio Lewis will 
give some light upon the foregoing question: 

Experience of Col. "Col. , who was born among the hills of a 

neighboring state, and who served through the whole of the late Civil 
war, attaining honorable rank in the service, in speaking of this sub- 
ject, said: 'Why, doctor, you do not know one half of the misery that 
comes to men and women in the way of which you are now speaking. 
Take my own family, for example. My father was intellectually and 
physically one of the most vigorous men I ever knew. Though he 
learned to write his name after he was seventeen years of age, he 
was at thirty-five one of the most intelligent men in our county. He 
stood almost six feet in his stockings, was of the finest proportions 
and possessed a noble presence. But he was addicted to the use of 
whiskey and tobacco, using both to excess. He died at fifty-four. 
Though my mother was of a healthy and very long-lived family, not 
one of the eight children who lived to grow up, began to equal our 
father in size, or vigor of body, or powers of mind. All of us liked 
whiskey, though our mother detested it. All the boys now use, or 
have used, tobacco to excess, and all of us are predisposed to some 
chronic disease, like rheumatism, scrofula or erysipelas. The worst 
of this sad story, doctor, is that our own children do not seem to 
possess even as much vigor as we do. 

k 'Perhaps the experience of my own family may be of interest in 
this connection. While in the army I became an inveterate smoker. 



42 SOCIAL PURITY. 

My first two children, born while I was a victim of tobacco, are both 
of weak physical organization. They are bright enough in mind, but 
are delicate and nervous. Before the youngest was born, I had not 
only abandoned tobacco, but was taking exercise in a gymnasium, and 
living on oatmeal, cracked wheat, beefsteak, and other plain and 
wholesome food. Although my wife's health was not as good as usual, 
her last child is worth both the others, physically, and will excel them 
in powers of mind. Only this morning my wife said: "This is the 
healthiest baby I ever knew. She can stand anything." Doctor, 
when I look back, knowing what I now know, I can see what awful 
wrongs I have done to my little ones. ' ' ' 

Blood Will Tell. Thus we see that prenatal influences greatly 
modify, if they do not wholly control, inherited tendencies. Is it 
common sense to suppose that a child, begotten when the parents are 
exhausted from mental or physical overwork, can be as perfect as 
when the parents are overflowing with the buoyancy of life and 
health? The practical farmer would not allow a domestic animal to 
come into his flock or herd under imperfect physical conditions. He 
understands that while "blood will tell," the temporary conditions of 
the animals will also tell in the perfections or imperfections of the 
offspring. No one expects that two old dray horses will produce a 
Flora Temple or a Joe Patchen; no more should we expect a gentle, 
placid child from a nervous, excitable parentage. 

If it is worth the while for the horticulturist to secure the best 
seed, does it not behoove the highest form of animal life also to build 
carefully on a sure and safe foundation? Imperfect seed in poor soil 
means a sickly harvest. 

Darwin says: "Man scans with scrupulous care the character and 
pedigree of his horses, cattle and dogs before he matches them; but 
when he comes to his own marriage he rarely, or never, takes any such 
care. For the sake of the offspring, both sexes ought to refrain from 
marriage if in any marked degree either has any defect in mind or 
body. The fact is, however, that 'Fools rush in where angels fear to 
tread.'" 

Preparation for Parenthood. In preparation for parentage one 
should remember that anything worth having is worth striving for. 
In commercial life we rarely receive anything without paying well for 



PRENATAL INFLUENCES. 43 

it. So if we are to have well-born children we must be willing to 
pay the price for them by practicing self-denial, exercising self-control 
and cultivating our highest faculties. If we would realize our high- 
est ideals, we will shun those habits of indolence and self-indulgence 
as we would a poisonous insect. If we would bequeath to our chil- 
dren find proportions, noble characters, healthful bodies and intellec- 
tual capabilities, we will make wise provision in season. We can not 
purchase these for our progeny— there is not gold enough in all the 
mines of Klondike — but we may earn it for them if we begin long 
enough before the initial of their lives. 

It is no small legacy to be endowed with perfect health. In beget- 
ting children comparatively few people seem to think that any care 
or concern is necessary to insure against ill-health or poverty of mind. 
How strange our carelessness and unconcern when these are the 
groundwork of all comfort and success! How few faces and forms 
we see which give sign of perfect health. It is just as reasonable to 
suppose that men and women can squander their fortune and still 
have it left to bequeath to their children, as that parents can violate 
organic laws and still retain their own strength and activity. 

If lost to themselves, how can they bestow it upon their offspring? 
If mistakes have been made, plan now to avoid the same in the future. 
If through ignorance and self-indulgence, weak and sickly children 
have been brought into your home, make provision now for a more 
bountiful nature and a better legacy for those which are to come. 

A mother, just a bundle of nerves in a worn-out body, with five 
small children, ever at her side or in her arms, said: "It is the Lord's 
will, I must submit to it." "No," Justice says, "it is not the Lord's 
will; it is man's." God made better provisions; man took matters in 
his own hands, and he is responsible for the results. 

Let us see what care and training on the part of both parents, pre- 
vious to conception, will do for the child. Dr. Dio Lewis gives such 
an example under his own care. The husband had used the tobacco 
quid and pipe to excess. The wife had "lived on tea." The father 
had variable health, the mother was usually able to do her own house- 
work, though frequently compelled to go to bed with sick headache. 
They had two pale, delicate, nervous, irritable boys, often ailing or 
actually sick. One was a sufferer from acute attacks of earache, 



44 SOCIAL PURITY. 

accompanied by a profuse discharge, and the other had sore eyes, 
thought to have been caused by measles. In consultation with Dr. 
Lewis, he advised them not to have any children for three years, and 
mapped out a course of physical training for them which they faith- 
fully followed. In about four years a little girl was born. She 
passed through the measles and scarlatina with no after-troubles, and 
was singularly free from nervousness and irritability, and is alto- 
gether so much handsomer, brighter and happier, that it is difficult to 
believe that they all belong to the same family. 

Physical Power Transmitted. We give an illustration from Pro- 
fessor Riddell, showing the result of a change in the habits of the 
father. He says: "I have a friend in New York who was engaged in 
a sedentary occupation. For years he had taken but little bodily 
exercise, and consequently was low in physical strength and energy. 
His little boy, born under these conditions, had a splendid brain and 
excelled in mathematics (the father was a book-keeper), but was 
sadly wanting in physical development and vitality. His lower limbs 
were spindling, his chest narrow and his whole constitution weak. 
After my conversation with the father touching the possible cause, he 
was determined to see what could be done by a little vigorous training 
on his part. He therefore took up systematic physical culture, put- 
ting in an hour a day in a gymnasium for nearly two years, with the 
result that he gained twenty-five pounds of solid muscle, and, as he 
said, 'twice as much energy,' becoming a well-developed athlete. At 
the end of two years the initial of another life took place. This 
child, also a boy, had as good a brain as his older brother and a strong 
physique as well. He surprised his mother and greatly delighted his 
father, when only a few months old, by suspending his weight by his 
hands from a bar and doing numerous other feats that indicated 
superior muscular power. When the two entered school, the elder 
was inclined to study beyond his strength, did not care for exercise or 
play, and had to be driven from his books. The younger, although 
there were several years between them, handled his brother like a bag 
of bran, took an active part in all active sports, yet kept up his studies 
easily. The father, after seeing the unquestionable benefit that his 
younger child had derived from his own training, said to me: 'I would 




LIKE PARENTS, LIKE CHILDREN. 
Mental and Physical Debility. 




LIKE PARENTS. LIKE CHILDREN. 
Health of Body and Mind. 



PRENATAL INFLUENCES. 45 

give all I have in the world and five years of my life to have had my 
eldest son as well born as his brother.' " 

Mental Power Transmitted. The acquired characteristics of the 
mind are also transmitted, as shown in the instance I am about to 
quote from the same authority: 

At Strang, Neb., in a Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railway sta- 
tion, Professor Riddell saw a girl twelve years old, selling tickets, 
checking baggage, receiving and sending telegraphic messages, dis- 
patching trains, directing passengers, and otherwise superintending 
the station. He made inquiries for the agent, and was informed that 
the child was the regular agent. On further inquiries he found that 
she had entered the employ of the company at ten years of age. She 
had entire charge of the books, money, telegraphic communications 
and all other business of the department. The road auditor reported 
her as "one of the most efficient agents of the system. " The pro- 
fessor also says: "I spent several hours in conversation with her at 
different times, and was amazed at the rapidity and self-composure 
with which she discharged her many duties. I observed that in 
receiving or sending a message, she would converse freely on other 
subjects without any apparent difficulty; while the endless questions 
of passengers, the clamor of checking baggage, and the shouting of 
trainmen for orders did not disturb her in the least. All seemed to be 
done as if by instinct. The child resembled her father in his fixed 
characteristics, but in her marvelous gifts was a reproduction of his 
business qualities before the initial of her life. The father had been 
a train-dispatcher on one of the trunk lines out of Chicago for fifteen 
years prior to the birth of the child. His laborious tasks had seem- 
ingly concentrated all his forces in the one line. The child had shown 
a peculiar aptitude for his work from infancy." 

Thus we see that fathers as well as mothers are instrumental in 
determining a child's capacities and possibilities by a well-chosen 
course previous to conception. 

We have also shown by the foregoing illustration that the acquired 
habits of life, the results of mental training, may be transmitted as 
well as physical peculiarities. It is just as certain that vicious 
indulgence in the parent will corrupt the morals of the offspring. A 



46 SOCIAL PURITY. 

virtuous life will impart a stronger will and a more sensitive conscience 
to the life which follows. 

The Condition of the Parents at the Time of Conjunction. Dr. 

Napheys says: "One of the best proven and most disastrous examples 
of untimely conjunction is seen in children who have been conceived 
at the time the father was partially intoxicated. There is no doubt 
whatever that under such circumstances the child is pretty sure to be 
idiotic, or to have epileptic fits, or to be of a feeble mind and irritable 
nervous system." 

Children that are conceived when either parent is unusually excited 
or exhausted by mental or physical overwork will be likely to have 
little vitality and few resources upon which to build. The same may 
be true if conception takes place when the father is threatened with 
a severe illness or is recovering from one. 

The direct influence of the father upon the child is received at the 
time of conception; after that his reflection will come from the 
mother. 

Dr. Alice Stockham says: "Many a drunkard owes bis lifelong 
appetite for alcohol to the fact that the inception of his life could be 
traced to a night of dissipation on the part of his father. " It is said 
by other scientists that, not only do drunkards transmit to their 
descendants tendency toward insanity and crime, but even habitually 
sober parents, who at the moment of inception are in a temporary state 
of drunkenness, beget children who are epileptic, idiotic or insane, or 
with remarkable weakness of mind, which is transformed at the first 
favorable occasion into insanity. 

George Combe, in his Constitution of Man gives the following 
striking instance: "In the summer of 1827, the practitioner alluded to 
was called upon to visit professionally a young woman in the imme- 
diate neighborhood, who was safely delivered of a male child. As the 
parties appeared to be respectable, he made some inquiries regarding 
the absence of the child's father, when the old woman told him that 
her daughter was still unmarried, that the child's father belonged to a 
regiment in Ireland, that last autumn he obtained leave of absence to 
visit his relations in this part of the country, and that on the eve of 
his departure to join his regiment an entertainment was given, at 
which her daughter attended. During the whole evening she and the 



PRENATAL INFLUENCES. 47 

soldier danced and sang together; when heated by the toddy and the 
dance, they left the cottage, and after the lapse of an hour were found 
together in a glen in a state of utter insensibility from the effects of 
their former festivity, and the consequence of this interview was the 
birth of an idiot. He is now nearly six years of age, and his mother 
does not believe that he is able to recognize either herself or any 
other individual. He is quite incapable of making signs whereby his 
wants can be made known — with this exception, that when he is 
hungry he gives a wild shriek. The parents are both intelligent, and 
the fatal result can not be otherwise accounted for than by the total 
prostration or eclipse of the intellect of both parties from intoxica- 
tion." 

Professor Riddell says: "The law of initial impressions, like the 
other laws of heredity, is most easily traced where morbid conditions 
are transmitted; but fortunately it is quite as potential in the produc- 
tion of desirable qualities. Unusual excitement of the social, intellec- 
tual or religious powers in parents just prior to the inception of the 
new life frequently produces in the child corresponding tendencies. ' ' 

Dr. Huf eland, a German authority, says of the time of coition: "In 
my opinion, it is of the utmost importance that this moment should 
be confined to a period when the sensation of collected powers, 
ardent passion, and a mind cheerful and free from care, invite to it on 
both sides." 

Both parties should be at their best when about to give being to 
an immortal soul. A matter of so much importance should not be left 
to chance. 

Dr. B. F. Pratt, of Ohio, had his attention directed to a boy who 
bore a striking resemblance to James A. Garfield, our martyred presi- 
dent. Upon inquiry he found that the initial of the boy's life 
occurred while the parents were under the magnetic influence of an 
inspiring and eloquent address of Mr. Garfield. He was bright, studi- 
ous and a very promising boy, much superior to his parents in every 
way. He seemed to be the embodiment of the spirit of Garfield, 
which, for the time being, had taken possession of the parents, and 
through them had been transmitted to the boy. He seemed to be 
controlled to a remarkable degree by the influence of this talented and 
magnetic orator. 



48 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Some people are inclined to ridicule the idea and importance of 
initial impressions, because they say that conception rarely takes 
place at the moment of coition. 

While it may be true that the germ and sperm cells do not imme- 
diately unite, the body, mind and soul of the parents are represented 
in these cells, and as are the parents, so are these cells, be the union 
of them when it may, at the time of conjunction or several days later. 
If the parents are weak and exhausted these life-messengers — the germ 
and sperm cells — will maintain their conditions. 

After conception the child becomes the peculiar charge of the 
mother. From her it may receive such imprint as will determine to a 
large extent the future welfare of its being It is rather a sweeping 
assertion to say that the mother has it in her power to bring forth just 
such a child as her heart desires, because very few women can com- 
mand all the conditions favorable to her mental and physical comfort. 

Maternal Impressions. We are taught that the brain is more 
impressive during the embryonic period than at almost any other stage. 
We may see the reasonableness of this statement when we note that 
the childish mind is more susceptible to influence than that of more 
advanced age. Usually the younger the child the more powerful the 
impression, and the longer is the impression retained. An old person 
may forget the friends and events of his later life, but in his declining 
years will recall with accuracy those of his early childhood. The older 
the person the less ready is he to receive a new idea, and the less cap- 
able is he to adapt himself to change of any kind. An elderly man may 
change his ideals, his thoughts, his politics and his religion, but these 
changes partake of the nature of a revolution. Knowing this to be 
true, we may the more readily accept the statement of Professor 
Riddell that "prenatal impressions are more potential than post- 
natal." 

On this subject Mr. A. E. Newton says: "The human embryo is 
formed and developed in all its parts, even to the minutest detail, by 
and through the action of the vital, mental and spiritual forces of the 
mother, which forces act in and through the corresponding portions 
of her organism. And while this process may go on unconsciously, 
or without the mother's voluntary participation or direction, . . . 
yet she may consciously and purposely so direct her activities as, with 



PRENATAL INFLUENCES. 49 

a good degree of certainty, to accomplish specifically desired ends in 
determining the traits and qualities of her offspring. In other words, 
it would seem to be within the mother's power, by the voluntary and 
intelligent direction of her own forces, in orderly, systematic efforts, to 
both mold the physical forms to lines of beauty and shape the mental, 
moral and spiritual features of her child to an extent to which no 
limit can be assigned." 

Mother Responsible for Mental and Intellectual Traits. Dr. 
Napheys observes: "Since the mother can transmit through her blood 
certain characteristics of mind and body not her own — for instance, a 
disease peculiar to a male from her father to her son, or the physical 
and mental traits of her first husband to the children by her second 
— it does not seem at all strange that she should through this same 
medium (her blood) impart other peculiarities which have made a 
strong impression upon her mind. 

"The plastic brain of the foetus is prompt to receive all impressions. 
It retains them, and they become the characteristics of the child and 
the man. Low spirits, violent passions, irritability, frivolity, in the 
pregnant woman, leave indelible marks on the unborn child. So do 
their contraries, and thus it becomes of the utmost moment that dur- 
ing this period all that is cheerful, inspiring and elevating should 
surround the woman. Such emotions educate the child; they form its 
disposition; they shape its faculties; they create its mental and intel- 
lectual traits. Of all education this the most momentous." 

Dr. Lyman Beecher Sperry is inclined to give more credit to 
heredity than to temporary training during the period of pregnancy. 
He says: "What one habitually is, not what one occasionally or peri- 
odically does, probably has the greater influence in. determining the 
character of one's children. The influences which determine the 
capacities and character of a child begin further back than at the 
moment of conception. They certainly can not be commanded at will 
during pregnancy. 

"While natural developmental processes are energetic and sur- 
prisingly effective in correcting weaknesses which may exist in repro- 
ductive germs at the time of their union, those processes can not take 
in hand diseased or feeble reproductive germs and make of them such 
creatures as naturally and easily develop from healthful and vigorous 



50 SOCIAL PURITY. 

germs. No woman, however pure and vigorous, can develop an ideal 
child from such poison-saturated and defective spermatozoa as some 
men, because of their bad habits, must supply. While the mother's 
definite and purposive actions, emotions and volitions during preg- 
nancy are marvelously influential in deciding the result, they are not 
the only factors that enter into the problem." 

Maternity Woman's Noblest Work. Woman's best and noblest 
work is maternity. In this she blesses the earth and honors her 
Maker. She naturally longs and desires the office of motherhood if 
she be a true woman. 

In olden times, to be deprived of motherhood was one of the 
greatest afflictions that could be visited upon women. 

At the present time some physicians tell us that more women con- 
sult them to ascertain the cause of barrenness and to overcome it 
than have sought them for the purpose of preventing motherhood. 

Professor Drummond, in his Ascent of Man makes this 
emphatic declaration: "Mothers are the chief end of creation. In 
plants the mother species heads the list. Beyond the mother with her 
milky breast the Creator does not go; that is his goal." 

Women who have lived in communion with lofty aspirations and 
heavenly-born thoughts, though coupled with the lowly tasks of an 
earthly life, will seek the best conditions for the nurture and develop- 
ment of their unborn, but not unloved, children. If these conditions 
are met, and the requirements of freedom and love fulfilled, these 
children will surely rise up and call her who bore them, * 'blessed." 

The relation between maiden and lover is one of loving sympathy, 
that between husband and wife one of trusting love and worthy con- 
fidence, but no bond of union has stronger elements than that between 
the mother and the little life that lies so carefully shielded 'neath 
the walls of her own body. 

All the accomplishments of the mother, whether of grace of mind, 
or beauty of person, or sweet and noble qualities of heart, are not 
hers alone, but may also be the possession of the new being whom 
she so lovingly cherishes and nourishes. Every breath she draws, 
every bit of nourishment she takes, every emotion and fluctuation of 
feeling she indulges in, every exercise she participates in has a direct 
bearing on the child she carries near her heart. 



PRENATAL INFLUENCES. 51 

Those qualities of her nature that are the stronger, those principles 
that are the more firmly established will force out the weaker ones. 

If the good are the stronger, then the evil will be forced out. But 
if the evil is predominant, then the good will be eradicated. Good 
surroundings will help to the rightful unfolding of the new life. The 
ancient Greeks understood this idea when they placed around their 
prospective mothers beautiful statuary and pictures. 

Brilliant Example of Prenatal Culture. In the Arena of Sep- 
tember, 1894, is an article by M. Louise Mason, from which I quote 
to illustrate what environment of a pleasant nature and ardent desires 
on the part of the mother will do for a child: 

"I would often sit alone in my room, overlooking scenes that were 
pleasant, and, in a peaceful attitude of mind, perfectly passive, desire 
that my child should be a girl; that she should have a slight figure, 
chestnut hair and beautiful eyes; that she should be a musician, a 
singer, and that she should be proficient in everything she undertook; 
that she should be superior to all those I had ever known. Here is 
the result: a beautiful woman in mind and body, with chestnut hair, 
slight physique, and a phenomenal voice — contralto; she is a phi- 
losopher, a student in Delsarte, astronomy, astrology, and masters 
every study; is eloquent and has one of the most amiable dispositions. 
. . . My love for the unborn was so intense that it has created invis- 
ible lines which have grown with the years. . . . She has returned 
that love a thousand fold. She is all I desired and more." 

Napoleon probably owed his military achievements and active, 
energetic endowment to the fact that a few months prior to his birth 
his mother rode side by side with her soldier husband and witnessed 
the stirring events of a warrior's life. She partook of the enthusiasm 
inspired by martial music and moving troops. She even endured the 
fatigue and hardships imposed by camp life. So fascinated was she 
with the accouterments of war and excitement of military scenes that, 
notwithstanding her condition, she would have dared almost anything 
to witness a battle, or braved any danger to go through a war from 
beginning to conquest. 

We are also told that Dante received from his mother his poetic 
visions and fanciful imaginations which have so entranced the literary 
world, History tells us that shortly previous to his birth, his mother 



52 SOCIAL PURITY. 

• 

saw a startling vision of great significance and grandeur, and the 
splendor and magnificence of it so filled her soul with sublimity that, 
through the pen of her gifted son, the world still retains the elements 
of the grandeur there and then engendered. 

The mother of Robert Burns during pregnancy was never weary of 
chanting the old Scotch ballads, and many an otherwise tedious hour 
was beguiled of its monotony into happiness by her cheerful song and 
repetitions of the charming tales and fanciful legends of her native 
hills and streams. The budding of heir fancy and sentiment grew and 
expanded into the genius of Scotland's greatest poet. 

The mother of the authoress of the well-known French novel, 
Mai Moulee. says of herself during her pregnancy for this child: 
"When I was pregnant with my third child I put my whole energies 
to bring forth a poet. I read poetry, doted on it, lived in it, and when, 
during the day, unable to read it, thought of it, and when asleep 
dreamed of it. Byron being my favorite, I devoted to him more than 
a due proportion of my reading. My daughter is now a poetess, and 
her poems partake so much of Byron's style that her critics have asked 
her often why she did not sometimes select another model. . . . 
When next I became pregnant, my desires had been satisfied, and I 
did not care what the child would become. The result is that he has 
no strong qualities." 

The mother's desire for purity and holiness begets the same desire 
in her offspring. The inspired book tells us that holy men, as Samuel 
the Seer and John the Baptist, were born of holy women who sought 
their children of the Lord, and who dedicated both their children and 
themselves to His service. 

The mother of Frances E. Willard, the gifted leader of the 
"World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union," said, "I had many 
ambitions, but I disappeared from the world that I might reappear at 
some future day in my children." Not only did this wise mother give 
to her daughter her strong, courageous character and firm principles, 
but she gave her a facial expression much like a young teacher of her 
acquaintance of whom she was very fond, and whom she liked to look 
upon when pregnant prior to her daughter's birth. 

Dr. Edward Garraway tells the following instance: "A lady of 
refined taste was in the habit of sitting before a group of statuary, 



PRENATAL INFLUENCES. 53 

with one little figure of which she was greatly enamored. This was a 
Cupid reposing, his cheek resting on his hand. When her baby was 
born, his resemblance in form and feature to the little Cupid was at 
once striking. On seeing him the next day in his cradle, I perceived 
he had assumed the precise attitude of the statuette— the cheek upon 
the back of his hand; and this position he invariably, and, of course, 
involuntarily, adopted during sleep, not only throughout infancy, but 
up to advanced boyhood, when I lost sight of him." 

Dr. A. E. Newton gives a case somewhat similar: "A mother at an 
early stage in pregnancy had her attention drawn to a beautiful figure 
of a child in wax, exhibited in a shop window. It had a lovely face 
indicative of an amiable character, and it greatly pleased the lady's 
fancy. She frequently visited the spot in order to feast her eyes upon 
its pleasing features, and brought the energies of her soul to bear in 
an endeavor to transfer them to the unfolding germ within. When 
her child (a daughter) was born, its features were an almost exact 
copy of those of the beautiful figure, markedly different from the fea- 
tures of any other of the family. There are five other children, none 
of whom are remarkable for beauty. ' ' 

Col. William F. Cody, otherwise known as " Buffalo Bill," or the 
"Wild West Showman," was strongly impressed by his mother's 
heroism in frontier life previous to his birth. He was born in Mis- 
souri in troublous times, and his mother's dauntless courage and 
self-control during these stirring events were potential in the life of 
the buffalo hunter and government scout. 

Sad Examples of Prenatal Influences. A gentleman, whose son 
had just been sentenced to state's prison, gives this sad experience: 
"When I was married I thought I could live more cheaply by remain- 
ing with my mother in the old homestead. We did so. My wife was 
timid and bashful in the presence of her mother-in-law and never felt 
at home. She soon became pregnant, and in that condition had crav- 
ings for articles of delicacy in which she dared not indulge in my 
mother's presence. She would obtain and secrete bits of cake, pre- 
serves and other niceties, as she found opportunity, and would eat 
them in her own room or out of sight. After our boy was born and 
had become sufficiently grown to sit at the table, we noticed that 
while there he would never eat any piece of cake, pie or other delicacy 



54 SOCIAL PURITY. 

that was offered him, but, if possible, would secrete a piece and go away 
slyly in a corner or behind a door and greedily devour it there. At 
first we thought this only an amusing freak of childhood, and called it 
cunning; but after a time it became annoying. We wondered at it 
and tried to break it up, but without avail. He soon began to take 
other things, but we thought it only a common, childish fault, and 
hoped it would be outgrown. When he was but a few years old, I 
took him one day to a store to buy him a pair of shoes. His eye fell 
on a pair of boy's boots which took his fancy, and he said he wanted 
them. I thought shoes preferable, and purchased a pair. When 
we reached home I was pained to find that he had the boots hidden 
under his coat. I reprimanded him, reasoned with him and tried to 
show him the wickedness of the theft; but he insisted that he wanted 
the boots and was going to have them. I told him he must take 
them back and tell the storekeeper he was sorry; but he stubbornly 
refused. I compelled him to go with me and return the boots, but 
not a word of regret could I induce him to utter. 

"From that time on my troubles increased. In spite of all we 
could say or do, the boy would appropriate whatever he could lay his 
hands on that pleased his fancy. All my property has been spent in 
paying fines and rescuing him from the consequences of his evil pro- 
pensity; the peace of my family has been destroyed, and I am a 
broken-hearted man — all for the sake of saving a few paltry dollars at 
the beginning of my married life! Poor boy! I know he can not help 
stealing, and therefore I am glad he is where he can have no chance 
to steal." 

This is a dark picture and one which should serve to warn every 
future mother. Professor Riddell tells of a six-year-old boy who 
was inclined to steal, and whose case he studied. The mother said 
that before the birth of this boy, her husband was making money, but 
was unwilling to share, with her. When her husband was asleep, the 
wife would go through his pockets and take as much as she dared. In 
this way she took something like a hundred dollars without its being 
discovered. She indifferently gave Professor Riddell the idea that her 
boy was a cute thief, as he would go to his father's store and slyly get 
what he wanted from the money-drawer, and slip out as innocently 
a§ if no such thought had ever entered his mind, 



PRENATAL INFLUENCES. 55 

From the foregoing cases we note the great responsibility of the 
mother during the period of gestation. The true motherly woman 
will ever be mindful of that most sacred trust committed to her care. 
If the nervous system or controlling power be disturbed, all processes 
of growth which act in compliance with them will also be disturbed 
and diverted, and will result in an unnatural or deformed product. 

General Sherman said: "War is cruelty and you can't refine it." 
And it is such not only to those who participate in it but even to 
those at the time unborn. Times of famine, disaster, suffering and 
war have so affected the minds of pregnant women that the result as 
shown in their offspring has been made a subject of scientific investi- 
gation. Of the children born at the siege of Antwerp, a large propor- 
tion was deformed and many were still-born. At the siege of Landau 
in 1793, the women were kept in a continual state of alarm; explosions 
and cannonading so added to their nervous excitement that they them- 
selves were almost prostrated. Out of 92 children born in that dis- 
trict within a few months, 16 died at birth, 33 languished for eight or 
ten months and died, 8 became idiots and died before they were five 
years old, and 2 came into the world with numerous fractures of the 
limbs. The histories of the others were not followed up. 

It appears that mental and physical health and moral excellence 
are the normal conditions of humankind, while disease and all other 
evils are abnormal. The former are in line with the great forces of 
the universe; the latter oppose them. Nature has a tendency to 
maintain the normal, provided the evil influences are contended with 
and forced to succumb. 

Notable Oases of Birthmarks. The fact that abnormal impressions 
result in deformities of body or defective intellect is generally 
acknowledged by physicians and scientists who take any pains to 
investigate the cause of certain effects. The medical records and 
journals of the day give accounts of abnormal impressions which have 
produced what are commonly called birthmarks, though there are 
some theorists who ridicule the idea. In the face of such theorists, 
what of the facts? They are hard things to deal with. It is our pur- 
pose to cite a number of well-authenticated cases of birthmarks. 
Dr. S. Pancoast, professor of microscopic anatomy and physiology in 
the Institute of Medicine in Pennsylvania Medical University, P hilar 



56 SOCIAL PURITY. 

delphia, is authority for the following: "A woman who was forced 
to be present at the opening of a calf by a butcher, bore a child with 
all its bowels protruding from the abdomen. She was aware at the 
time of something going on within the womb. 

"A pregnant woman became frightened at a lizard jumping into 
her bosom; she bore a child with a fleshy excrescence exactly resemb- 
ling a lizard, growing from the breast, adhering by the head and neck. 

"A woman frightened in her first pregnancy by the sight of a child 
with a harelip, had a child with a deformity of the same kind. Her 
second child had a deep slit, and the third a mark of a similar charac- 
ter, or modified harelip. In this instance the morbid mind of the 
mother affected several successive issues of her body. ' ' 

Professor Riddell, who has given much attention to this phase of 
impressions, says that a lady in Chicago, to avoid disturbing her 
husband (who was employed nights and slept during the day), went 
about her work all day on tiptoe. Her baby, carried under these con- 
ditions, although a strong and healthy child, did not walk until nearly 
two years old. He would not put his foot flat down, but persisted in 
going on his tiptoes. This, with the following cases, came under 

his own observation: "A Mrs. G was greatly frightened by a large, 

savage dog springing at her as she started to enter a barn. In throw- 
ing her hands down to resist the animal, she struck her limb. Her 
babe, born some months after, had the form of the vicious animal's 
face on the thigh at the point where the mother's hand struck. The 
form of the dog's face is slightly raised and is covered with scattering 
canine hair, presenting the same general appearance as the vicious 
animal." He also says of the same mother that she marked her son 
by an abnormal longing for beans. Seeing a huckster passing, she 
tried in vain to procure some beans. Returning to the house, she 
stepped to the mirror and adjusted her collar, touching her throat as 
she did so. Her boy, born a few months later, has two perfect brown 
bean marks on his throat. 

Dr. Fordyce Barker gives the following circumstance under his 

personal observation: "Mrs. A , who had been married but a few 

weeks, was at the theater with her husband and other friends. Some- 
thing, she knew not what, vexed him, and he placed the point of his 
elbow on her hand, which was resting on the arm of her seat, and held 



PRENATAL INFLUENCES. 57 

it so firmly that she could not draw it away. Not wishing to make a 
scene in the theater, she bore it silently until she fainted away. The 
fingers were much swollen and very painful for several days. . . . 
Thirty-five weeks and three days after the theater incident I attended 
her when she gave birth to a son. On the left hand, the first and 
second phalanges of all the fingers and the thumb were absent, look- 
ing as if they had been amputated." 

In the New York Medical Record of Nov. 28, 1891, we find this 
instance from the pen of Dr. F. C. Herr: "A lady six weeks advanced 
in pregnancy was sued before a justice of the peace by her servant- 
girl for non-payment of wages. The lady received a notice to appear 
at the office of the justice. This was a new experience to her, and as 
she herself stated, it almost frightened her to death. She went. The 
justice, whom I know, has a cleft palate. His articulation is most 
difficult to understand, and his manner of speech, when you do not 
know him, rather repulsive. After returning home from his office, 
for weeks this experience was on her mind, and she said she could 
hear the squire talk all the time. A child was born to her, and the 
physical conformation of the palate, arches and roof of the mouth was 
the counterpart of that of the justice's." 

Dr. A. E. Gore, ex-president of the Missouri State Medical Society, 
says: "I knew a lady who, while pregnant, was chased by a pet coon, 
and if I remember rightly, the coon sprang upon her right shoulder. 
She was much terrified. When the child was born, over the right 
shoulder and along the neck it was covered with a hairy growth as 
much resembling that of a coon as two peas resemble one another." 

A little girl in the public school, under the charge of the writer, so 
much resembled the monkey in looks and actions that he made a 
remark to that effect in the presence of a lady, an acquaintance of the 
child's mother. This lady said that when pregnant, the child's mother 
had been very much attracted to the monkey cage in a circus, and so 
fascinated was she that her child bore this marked resemblance. The 
child had a peculiar way of using her hands, and while rather dull in 
comprehension of an abstract subject, was remarkably quick to 
imitate. 



58 SOCIAL PURITY. 

The Assassin of Garfield. Guiteau's father was a man of integrity 
and considerable intellectual ability. His children were born in quick 
succession and the mother was obliged to work very hard. Before 
this child was born she resorted to every means, though unsuccessful, 
to produce abortion. The world knows the result. Guiteau's whole 
life was full of contradictions. There was little self-controlling power 
in him, no common sense, and not a vestige of remorse or shame. 
In his wild imagination, he believed himself capable of doing the 
greatest work and of filling the loftiest station in life. Who will dare 
question that this mother's effort to destroy him while in embryo was 
the main cause in bringing him to the level of the brutes? 

Caution. Any attempt on the part of the mother to destroy her 
child before birth is liable, if unsuccessful, to produce murderous 
tendencies. Even harboring murderous thoughts, whether toward her 
own child or not, might be followed by similar results. 

"The great King of kings, 
Hath in the table of His Law commanded 
That thou shalt do no murder. Wilt thou then 
Spurn at His edict, and fulfill a man's? 
Take heed, lor He holds vengeance in His hand 
To hurl upon their heads that break His law." 

• —Richard III., Act 1. 



PART TWO 



The Girl in the Home 

Looking Toward Marriage 

Marriage — Bride — Wifehood 

Mother and Child 

Parent Study 




"IF A WOMAN HAVE LONG HAIR IT IS A GLORY. 



AT 13 

BAD LITERATURE 



AT 20 

FLIRTING*"" COQUETTERY 




ss 



I 



AT 26 

FAST LIFE-DISSIPATION 




AT 40 

AN OUTCAST 
Copyright, 1903, by J. A. Hertel. 



y*-TJ^% 






"V«^' 



THE above cut represents a 
beautiful little girl at 
seven — as pure as a sunbeam — 
she comes from a fine Christian 
family. Going to the left you 
see her at thirteen reading 
''Sapho," a vile novel that was 
suppressed several years ago in 
New York — it had a bad effect 
on our model little girl; at nine- 
teen Flirting and Coquetry ; third 
stage, a step lower; at twenty- 
six, Fast Life and Dissipation — 
this tells the sad story ; at forty 
she is an outcast — the miserable 
result of Social Impurity. 

To the right wehave a brighter 
picture — at thirteen, Study and 
Obcdie?ice ; next a young lady 
in church — Virtue and Devotion; 
at twenty-six — A Loving Mother 
— a most inspiring and lovely 
scene; at sixty — An Honored 
Grandmother. 




AT 13 

STUDY—OBEDIENCE 




VIRTUE— DEVOTION 






-# 



\ 



i 



AT 26 

A LOVING MOTHER 




AT 60 

AN HONORED GRANDMOTHER 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE GIRL AT HOME. 

There is an old song entitled, "What is Home without a Mother?" 
that finds an echo in every heart because of its tender pathos. Long- 
fellow, the household poet, asks: 

"What would the world be to us 
If the children were no more?" . 

Then he adds the thought so true to every parent heart: 

"We should dread the desert behind us 
Worse than the dark before." 

And many a father and mother would be unsatisfied if among the 
children were not found the dutiful daughter, the faithful and loving 
sister. In far-away India, where the little girl baby must make room 
in the home for the long-wished-for boy, she yet finds her a place 
because of her docile disposition, and faithful service to the honored 
father and brother. 

The Little Daughter a Blossom of Beauty. But the Christian 
home has a seat of honor unoccupied, a niche in its temple unadorned, 
a pedestal ungraced, unless there be a daughter within its sacred walls. 

The Heavenly Father, seated on the great white throne, bethought 
him of the daughterless home and gave order that the pearly portals 
should be left ajar, whence the pure white blossom of a sisterly soul 
might be wafted out said drift to earth on its mission of love. The 
bloom of Heaven was thus transported to earth, and the mother 
arms opened to receive her heaven-born gift, while her heart swelled 
with gratitude, and her tuneful lips parted to praise the Giver. 

To the father, the little daughter is a blossom of beauty and fra- 
grance; to the mother, she is a dream of bliss, a spot of ethereal 
brightness. 

We may comprehend something of the feelings of the mother as 
she welcomes the daughter to her heart and care, for the little one 
not only requires love, but much, very much, patient, tender care. 

Mrs. Sigourney well says: "I have seen a young and beautiful 

59 



60 SOCIAL PURITY. 

mother, herself like a brilliant and graceful ilower, from whom noth- 
ing could divide her infant. It was to her a twin-soul. She had loved 
society, for there she had been an idol. But what was the fleeting 
delight of adulation to the deep love that took possession of her whole 
being? She had loved her father's home. There she was ever like a 
song-bird, the first to welcome the day, and the last to bless it. Now 
she wreathed the same blossoms of the heart around another home, 
and lulled her little nurseling with the same inborn melodies." 

And now, my dear girl, behold what manner of love the Heavenly 
Father had for vou when he placed you in the radiance of such an 
earthly love. 

Now as a daughter in such a home, with such a mother, what can 
you do, what can you be, to show your appreciation of all the care 
and love you have thus far received? You have been watched over 
with tenderest devotion, your slightest cry was heeded, your every 
need anticipated. In health you were nourished, in sickness you were 
cherished. Your faintest moan went like a knife to the heart of your 
parents. Do you owe this mother anything? 

Maidenhood. Your childhood days are about over. You have 
done playing with your doll; and mud pies and the jumping-rope have 
lost their charms for you. The frolicsome games with your brothers 
and sisters, while still engaged in for their amusement, are not so 
fascinating as in former years. The freshness of the morning breeze 
has ceased to lure you from your restful bed for a bareback ride with 
old Dobbin. The keenness of the frosty air no longer tempts you 
out with sled and skate. You are fast approaching the time of 
"Maidenhood" so beautifully described by Longfellow in the follow- 
ing lines: 

"Standing with reluctant feet, 

Where the brook and river meet, 
, Womanhood and childhood fleet! 

"Gazing, with a timid glance, 
On the brooklet's swift advance, 
On the river's broad expanse! 

"Deep and still, that gliding stream 
Beautiful to thee must seem 
As the river of a dream. 



THE GIRL AT HOME. 61 

"Then why pause with indecision, 
When bright angels in thy vision 
Beckon thee to fields Elysian? 

"Seest thou shadows sailing by, 
As the dove, with startled eye, 
Sees the falcon's shadow fly? 

"Hearest thou voices on the shore, 
That our ears perceive no more, 
Deafened by the cataract's roar? 

"O thou child of many prayers! 
Life hath quicksands, Life hath snares! 
Care and age come unawares! 
***** 

"Gather, then, each flower that grows, 
When the young heart overflows 
To embalm that tent of snows. 
***** 

"Bear through sorrow, wrong and ruth 
In thy heart the dew of youth, 
On thy lips the smile of truth. 

"Oh, that dew, like balm, shall steal 
Into wounds that can not heal, 
Even as sleep our eyes doth seal; 

"And that smile, like sunshine, dart 
Into many a sunless heart, 
For a smile of God thou art." 

Duty to Parents. Perhaps you are the elder daughter of the 
home. Your first duty is to the dear father whose name you bear, 
and to the mother whose love you share. Do you realize your 
influence in the home circle? Perhaps not. But let me tell you that 
there are few men in this Christian land who are not proud of their 
daughters. A father may, and does, love his son, but there is a 
tenderer love for the daughter, who is a constant reminder in form 
and feature to that other girl who was the light and joy of his young 
manhood. He sees in the daughter his youthful love, a counterpart 
of her who placed her all in his keeping till death do them part. Are 
you ready to give up your pleasure for his? Long years he planned 
for yours. Weary years he toiled to provide means for your comfort 



62 SOCIAL PURITY. 

and education. Wakeful nights he arranged every advantage worthy 
the child of his love. Have you noticed how his tired eye brightens 
at your approach? how attentive he is to reports concerning your suc- 
cess in school and among your associates? He rejoices in your 
achievements; he enjoys the recital of your victories; he glories in 
your attainments. He is pleased with your cheery talk and witty 
observations. So, give him the pleasure of your company, the sunshine 
of your young life to cheer the approaching dulness of his declining 
years. If he can not give you all the pretty things you desire, or can 
not furnish all the comforts your heart might wish, do not let him see 
you fretful and sulky about it. Remember that he would gladly give 
you all you wish, were he able to do so. Our loved Longfellow, 
seeing clearly into the future, tells us that 

"Into each life some rain must fall, 
Some days must be dark and dreary." 

And as the dear father nears the crossing of the river, the dreary days 
come oftener. Because of this, put in for him all the sunshine you 
can. Do not stand aloof, and think that your father does not care 
for your confidence, because he says but little; he does care. In the 
life of his children he renews his youth. In his daughter he renews 
his youthful love. 

Duty to Mother. Your hanging braids or ringlets have disappeared, 
to reappear in shining coils above a thoughtful brow; your short skirts 
have lengthened into flowing lines of beauty; your romping ways have 
given place to the graceful dignity of maidenhood, and you are now, 
or ought to be, your mother's right hand. "If," as Ruth Ashmore 
says, in the Ladies Home Journal, "your mother is queen of the 
household, you may be her prime minister. ' ' If she is president of 
the home government, you may be her secretary of state. To you she 
turns for help and counsel. She consults you upon various household 
economies. She seeks your opinion upon subjects with which you 
are acquainted, and with which, because of her many home cares and 
duties, she has had no opportunity to become familiar. You have 
now a chance to repay in a measure what she has done for you. But 
you will never know her self-denial, will never realize the sacrifice 
she has made for you, until you, yourself, have become a mother. 



THE GIRL AT HOME. 63 

A thousand things — little things in themselves to be sure — must 
pass under her watchful eye for the comfort and convenience of the 
different members of the family, any one of which unprovided for 
would mean discomfort and annoyance to some, and perhaps all, in 
the home. In the care of these little things a thoughtful daughter 
will take a share. Then there are many divisions of the household 
work which are a great trial to the mother's strength as her years 
accumulate. The mother is now on the down-hill side of life, and 
must drop some of the burdens she has been wont to carry. These 
the loving daughter will cheerfully assume. An elder daughter may 
be the mother's go-between. The younger children in many homes 
call her "our little mother." 

Duty to Younger Children. Many a young man is indebted to a 
sister's influence for a noble manhood; many a young girl has been 
inspired to higher living by the example of a faithful, loving elder 
sister. Father, mother and little children look to the elder daughter 
and sister for help, comfort and sympathy. It is her hand that 
smooths the path and lifts the burden from those who bore her; it is 
her touch that soothes the fevered brow of the wakeful children; it is 
her witchery that brings the smile from the would-be pouting lips of 
the little sister; it is her magic that quiets the wilful brother into 
good-natured obedience. It is she who is the companion of her awk- 
ward big brother. 

Influence Over Brothers. She shapes his ungainly figure into one 
of symmetry by the power of her kindly art. She adjusts his collar; 
she softens his stiff, ugly bow-knot into something akin to beauty; 
she arranges his hair from stubby shortness into lines of comeliness; 
she presses his baggy trousers into neat and tidy outline; she 
straightens his nail-hung coat into becoming smoothness; she bids him 
with gentle sweetness to polish his boots and brush his finger-nails. 
And when he emerges from under her surveillance into society, he is, 
if not an object of beauty, at least one of pleasant interest. 

Her Place in the Home. The place of our girl in the home is, 
therefore, just such a place as she has a mind and an effort to make it. 
It may be large or it may be small. That will depend upon her ideal 
and the endeavor she makes to realize it. It is really a creative place, 
one in which she may be the jewel of light and real worth, a most 



64 SOCIAL PURITY. 

helpful and sunny influence in the home, or simply a participant in 
the comforts and protection of the home, without a thought that any- 
thing is expected of her in return. Too many girls are thoughtless 
in this respect. We say thoughtless, because we believe that few 
mean to be selfish and unkind to those whom they know to be their 
best friends. Others there are in many an humble home who are 
gems of purest ray, not because of their learning and accomplish- 
ments, but because of their cheerful obedience to the promptings of 
an unselfish heart. 

From the pen of Margaret E. Sangster, in Winsome Woman- 
hood, we cull the following so replete with good sense and whole- 
some thought: "Not every household in the land has its darling, 
ministering daughter, but no household is replete without one. Into 
what need of the hour does she not fit? What longing of the heart 
does she not fill, this dear young thing who repeats in face and form 
the sweetness of the mother's past, and in trick and gesture, pose 
and accent, is a feminine copy of her father? The princess royal, 
wherever we find her, is the girl whose office it is to rule her circle of 
kinsfolk by right of her soft invincibility and to serve them in virtue 
of her unwearied strength. All the lovelier if she be gently insistent 
on her privileges and not too subdued and restrained, as the charm of 
the rose is enhanced by its shielding briers, it is permitted to the 
daughter of the house to have, in many minor details, her own way. 
If she decrees alterations, they are made; if she desires innovations, 
her family sanctions them. It is Katherine, Marion, Lillie, Charlotte, 
whose happy day of queenly prerogatives has arrived, and her people, 
from the grandparents down, are devoted and obedient subjects. 

"The mother in her chair of state is not often ready to abdicate 
merely because her little girl has let down her frocks and put up her 
hair; because she has laid down the severities of her college cap and 
gown and donned a young lady's attire in frills and ruffles, trians and 
laces and ribbons. 

"Dear mother prefers as yet to keep house in person and delegates 
only a small share of her work to her pretty Celia or Dorothy. But 
in portions of the home-making Celia naturally takes part, and 
especially is she in evidence in the home's hospitalities. She pours 
tea at five o'clock for the friends who call informally, and when the 



THE GIRL AT HOME. » 65 

mother has a day or days of receptions, her daughter is to her a right 
hand. The small and graceful courtesies, never obtrusive, but always 
appreciated, which add so much to a visitor's pleasure; the fresh 
towels in a guest chamber, the flowers renewed in bowl and vase, the 
bric-a-brac dusted, the slippers ready for father's tired feet, the 
cushion softly interposed at the moment when the mother's back 
begins to ache, the prompting word which enables aunty to tell her 
favorite story, the needles ready threaded for grandmother — these 
little cares are within the province of the daughter of the house. 

"She is popular with the servants, and many a time a fervent bless- 
ing follows her, spoken lovingly by cook or maid, to whom she is 
always a particular providence. Hers is the happy knack of making 
people satisfied with themselves, and Bridget and Patrick, Norah and 
John serve her with alacrity because she requests and does not order, 
and is unstinted in her pleasant return of thanks for their kindness. 
The letters which they send to their cousins beyond the seas are often 
written for them by their young lady, who knows what they want to 
say, and says it in a honeyed phrase which commends her tact and 
discretion to those whose willing amanuensis she is. 

"I am not surprised to find that, like Mrs. Browning's heroine in a 
familiar poem, 'tis her thinking of others, makes you think of her, for 
the daughter of the house at her best is an altruist. 

"Her father glories in her beauty, in her quick wit and her accom- 
plishments. The bond uniting father and daughter is very subtle; it 
implies loyalty on the one side and courtliness on the other. There 
is little in reason which he can deny her, while she instinctively asks 
for what she wants with the air of one to whom half of the kingdom 
is already pledged. The two have much in common; they like the 
same amusements, they enjoy the same books, and, when they go on 
a journey together, the father's attentions are as tender as a lover's 
to the maiden whose undimmed brightness almost confers a distinc- 
tion upon him. Outsiders observe the relation between the two and 
smile in sympathy. A boat or a train is the richer for carrying such 
travelers. 

In the Sick-room. "Some skill in amateur nursing is a gift which 
the girl should seek to obtain if it is not her birthright, for there are 
often occasions when she may be called upon to care for illness and 



66 SOCIAL PURITY. 

soothe an invalid. I am supposing that our Dorothy is herself well, 
as every young woman should be, and that she prizes her health so 
that she does not foolishly overdraw her reserves. 'I nursed my 
mother through two years of intense suffering,' said a daughter, 'and I 
was often with her at night as well as in the daytime, but I did not 
break down. I exercised regularly before open windows if I could 
not go out; I took what rest I could and I kept cheerful for her sake.' 
A course in nursing (if not the full course of the trained nurse, then 
the partial one of the trained assistant) gives a young woman inval- 
uable preparation for the demands, which sooner or later her life will 
make upon her in the department of caring intelligently for the sick. 
Lessons in first aid to the injured are also beyond price, showing a 
girl what to do and how to do it, in a case of emergency, when a per- 
son has had a fall, or is burned, or faints, or is wounded or maimed 
by accident. Presence of mind is learned by those who are drilled 
and disciplined by exact practical training, and the time devoted to 
this by a young woman is put to good account. 

As a Kindergartner. "If the daughter of the house wishes to 
make herself still further useful in her day and generation, still 
further able to 'serve the present age,' let her take the beautiful series 
of lessons which the kindergartner finds prescribed for her; not that 
she may teach the babies, but that she may acquire the precision, the 
serenity, the matchless tact and the sweet winningness which distin- 
guish and adorn the teachers of Froebel's system. A young woman 
will be the lovelier in society, the better fitted for her future responsi- 
bilities as they come one by one, for having taken a course at a kin- 
dergartner school. ' ' 

Earning" a Living. Not every girl is obliged to fold up her child- 
hood pleasures and lay them on the shelf as she does her apron, and 
happy is she who may retain them to womanhood's sedater years. 
Doubly happy is she who knows how to appreciate a good home where 
every need is supplied, and where love of kindred is unstinted. 

If our girl is wise, and it is not necessary that she should go out 
into the world to earn a livelihood, she will hesitate long and consider 
seriously the question of seeking a wider sphere. 

These are days of restless activity and aspiration. The time has 
long since gone by when school-teaching and millinery are the only 



THE GIRL AT HOME. 67 

occupations open to women. To-day young women are tempted on 
every hand to lay aside the sweeter ministries of the home for the 
seemingly larger career of a business or a professional life. An ambi- 
tious girl, conscious of her native resources and acquired ability, 
prompted by a desire to achieve something commendable, or to 
further improve her abilities or character, is often induced to step 
out from the quietude of the home circle into the busy competitions 
which a public life offers. She argues that she has no right to with- 
hold her talents which have been so carefully cultivated at a great 
expense, and which may be made useful and helpful to large numbers 
of other people less fortunate. Or, as Margaret Sangster says: "She 
wonders why there should be limitations hedging her about, when, 
in the case of her brother, not better equipped, not more aggressive 
than herself, it is expected and required that he shall engage in the 
competitions of his time, do battle with the public wrong, strive for 
the public right, and, in the open field, enter the lists with his peers. 
An ambitious and wide-awake young girl often chafes against the 
hampering conditions of her lot and wishes tnat she might without 
question do with her life as she pleases. And in this she is not to be 
blamed, nor for this should she be hastily condemned. The point of 
view must be regarded and the twentieth-century atmosphere weighed 
in the balance." 

If, from reverses of fortune, it becomes necessary for our girl to 
measure swords with her brawny brother in obtaining a livelihood, or if 
the care of invalid or aged parents be thrust upon her small shoulders, 
then all honor to her for the brave stand she takes for their sakes, in 
the busy world of strife. Under such conditions our girl friend 
deserves the highest praise and sincerest sympathy as a wage-earner. 

Filling In. But we contend that there is still a large field open 
for usefulness in the home. There are many niches unfilled, many 
spaces sadly in need of a skilful, ready hand. A young lady, just out 
of school, was asked by a friend how she employed herself. She 
laughingly replied, "Oh, I just fill in the chinks;" but her mother 
quietly added with appreciative earnestness: "The chinks are every- 
thing. You haven't the slightest idea what a help she is and what a 
load she lifts from my shoulders, this filling-in of the chinks, as she 
calls it. 



68 SOCIAL PURITY. 

"You see, when she was through school, there didn't seem to be 
anything definite for her to do. Her father and I wanted her at 
home, for a while, at least, before she undertook to go out into the 
world. 

"Our one servant does all the heavy work, of course, and I am kept 
jpretty busy with the children, and so she looked around and noticed 
the little things that should be done to keep a home neat and orderly, 
and which a servant never does and I have very little time for. The 
left-overs, I always called them — oh, but it is such a comfort to have 
them done. ' ' 

"And what are they?" I asked of the girl, as she sat pulling out the 
edges of a lace mat and making it look fresh and fluffy. 

"Oh! I don't know," she answered. "There are so many of them, 
and such little things, you know." 

She spoke almost apologetically. 

"Let me see. Well, I began in the parlor, of course. All girls 
do at first. There were some little silver vases that were seldom 
shined. I kept those bright and the silver on the afternoon tea-table. 
You have no idea how much it tarnishes. And the little cups always 
dusted and the doilies fresh and clean and the tidies also. Really, 
that is a work by itself, and mother used never to have time. Then 
the picture-molding. The brass hook that holds the picture-cord was 
never dusted. I kept those clean. 

"Then in the bedrooms I look out that there are fresh towels on 
the bureau and stand, and that the hair receivers are not jammed full. 

"It is really too funny the way I found them packed when I first 
began. And the soap-dishes clean and fresh soap when it is needed, 
and dusters in their bags and waste-baskets emptied — oh, yes, and 
buttons sewed onto the shoes. I believe I sew on a half dozen every 
day. 

"I go over the house daily — in the morning, right after the children 
are sent to school. 

"I begin by picking up the things they have dropped and putting 
them in their proper places. 

"Then I go into the library, sharpen the pencils that need it; fill 
the inkwell; see that the pens in the penholders are good, the blotting 
pad not too old, and the waste-basket empty, and then I go through 



THE GIRL AT HOME. 69 

the other rooms, and, if you'll believe me, I always find something to 
be done, something aside from the regular work of clearing up, sweep- 
ing or bed-making — these belong to the girl to do. 

"You see, I only do the little things that get left for the general 
cleaning, or neglected altogether. 

"It is very pleasant, and helps — at least, mother says that it 
does." 

"Yes," said the mother, "and no one else knows what a difference 
it does make in having those chinks filled. ' ' 

Plain Gifts. Our young girl may not possess great gifts; she may 
not be able to elaborate a point in metaphysics, nor write an essay of 
any considerable literary ability, nor even to pen a graceful letter of 
condolence; accomplishments may not be in her line; she may not be 
able to paint a picture, nor play a waltz, nor sing a solo, nor embroider 
a doily; she may have no ability as a social leader; she may be neither 
remarkable in mind nor manner; she may have neither beauty of face 
nor symmetry of form or feature, and she sometimes sorrowfully won- 
ders if in all the wide world there is any special place for such as she. 

Mary R. Baldwin, in the Woman, 's Home Companion, writes of 
just such a plain e very-day girl who found herself a place in the heart 
of others by the modest, unselfish giving of what she did have: 

"She was the plainest of a family, and as she grew to maidenhood 
gave no sign of possessing anything that would not seem possible to 
the most ordinary person. Her sisters had each a 'gift.' But nobody 
expected anything great from 'Miss Margaret,' and she never dared to 
hope that she could fill any place of importance even in the smallest 
circle. As is often the case with the inconspicuous girl of the family, 
she became a general helper, and was called to assist and to fill gaps 
in the home service. She learned through all this to get away from 
herself, and, in effect, said, 'I can not do this, but my sister can.' As 
soon as she could accept this, she was no longer a lonely girl, but 
imagined that she had a sort of partnership in the achievements of 
those whom she helped. Let it not be imagined that she never 
experienced a regret that she had herself been overlooked in the dis- 
tribution of gifts; there were bitter moments when she suffered on 
account of the fact, but this was before she had given herself wholly 
to the purpose of forgetting her loss and helping others. As soon as 



70 SOCIAL PURITY. 

this became a fact she began to receive of the blessedness of giving, 
and the mental and spiritual enlargement worked itself outwardly, so 
that she became a very attractive person. Finally, the prince came, 
and the slipper fitted the stay-at-home sister, and she became a princess 
before whom many hearts bowed in the sincerest reverence." 

Very likely if you had questioned her as to her attainments and 
accomplishments, she would have answered with the gravest sincerity 
that she had none whatever, yet she had one rare accomplishment 
which out-weighed all those which she so painfully realized she 
lacked. This faculty that made her willing to accept the humblest 
place of service in the home, was the secret of her success in winning 
the regard of others, both within the home and without its fold. 

The Art of Making Happy. Another sunny-faced, sweet-voiced 
girl who never had time for fancy work, and who always got off the 
key when singing, who never knew how to play the piano, and had 
never tried her hand at water-colors or crayon sketching, yet went 
about her commonplace work, touching every one with the wand of 
happiness. Wherever she went, gloomy faces grew cheerful; where 
frowns settled, smiles struggled for the position. She was a veritable 
happiness-maker, and she carried her trade-mark on her good-natured, 
freckled face. Children sought her presence, and stopped fretting 
when she came near. Chronic croakers ceased to whine in her com- 
pany. The tired laborer revived under the influence of her lively 
chatter. Old people ceased to dream of the long-gone days of yore, 
and found the present bright and sweet. " Without being wise or 
witty or beautiful, there was an atmosphere of peace about her like 
the fragrance of a flower. Her smile had the comforting warmth of 
sunshine. The tones of her glad young voice stirred the heart like a 
song. Girls who are fitting themselves for life and to adorn life will 
do well to take into account this rare and valuable accomplishment." 
A part of the preparation — and a very important part — has been 
missed if the art of making happiness has not been mastered, or has 
unfortunately been overlooked. 

A Cosmetic that Beautifies Permanently. Emerson says: ''There 
is no beautifier of the complexion or form of behavior like the wish to 
scatter joy, and not pain, around us." Here is a cosmetic that all the 
feminine world may use with no fear of after effects. No one will be 



THE GIRL AT HOME. 71 

accused of vanity, though it be used in great quantities. The more 
frequently it is applied, the more will the beauty of the consumer 
be enhanced. We often hear it said: "Don't you think such a girl is 
very homely?" The truth is we never had such a thought because the 
girl in question is always saying some kind or pleasant thing. She is so 
continually good-natured and cheerful, and so often engaged in mak- 
ing those about her happy, that her face is really beautiful to those 
who know her, and especially so to those to whom she ministers. In 
fact, all distributers of joy are lovely. No matter how angular the 
form or tawny the features, the cosmetic recommended by Mr. Emer- 
son will work wonders if faithfully applied. Have you ever noticed 
among your acquaintances one of stately form and finely-chiseled 
features whose every movement was one of grace, whose perfect 
physique was instantly marked? » Upon further acquaintance, did she 
prove the beautiful character your fancy imagined? If not, why not? 
Was it not that the selfish, bitter spirit within marred the beauty of 
the countenance? Perhaps as the rosy lips parted, they gave utter- 
ance to words that, like a knife, cut into the very heart of a sensitive 
listener. The beautiful features lost their symmetry and the harsh 
saying that carried the pain cast a dark shadow over the alabaster 
complexion, andyou said in your heart, if your lips did not, she is not 
homely, but ugly, for the word homely implies something like home, 
of a homey nature. 

Kitchen Angels. There is another form of home service for the 
young girl, which is just as valuable as any before mentioned. Per- 
haps it is even more valuable because it is such a service as every 
member of the family can appreciate, and one to which many of our 
talented young ladies are apt to give the least attention. 

Too many young women of the prosperous classes in our country 
are educated to do nothing but light housework and fancy work; to 
play the part of daughters at home, and when abroad to be agreeable 
members of society. These are all very pleasant and agreeable as far 
as they go, but the trouble is, they don't go far enough. 

Sarah V. Du Bois in the Christian Intelligencer, says: "One of 
Murillo's pictures represents a number of angels in a kitchen 
engaged in performing ordinary household duties. At first thought, 
we are disposed to be amused, perhaps, having associated ideas of 



72 SOCIAL PURITY. 

angels with performing on harps in streets of gold. Few o_ us would 
dream of looking into a kitchen to find a company of angels engaged 
in doing culinary work. 

"Yet why not? Is there a more blessed or beautiful ministry than 
that of serving others in the ordinary ways of life? To be happy, one 
must be useful; and who can gainsay the usefulness of the young 
maiden who resolves to make wholesome and happy the atmosphere 
of her home? Baking bread, serving cake and delicious viands, may 
not be exactly angelic in its daily routine, but I am sure the bright 
and healthy mind employed in such labor may find in it a peculiar and 
enduring pleasure. 

"I wonder if any who read these words will smile at the homely 
sentiments expressed and deem it unworthy of their attention. Now, 
I would not be misunderstood for a single instant, my dear young girls. 
Cultivate your minds, store them with useful knowledge, stir up the 
gift that is in you and make it count for something in this grand 
world which possesses such unlimited possibilities. The parable of 
the ten talents is too familiar to be brought here to your attention. 
To waste our opportunities is a sin for which we must answer to God 
in the great day of reckoning. 

<4 It is very beautiful to write stirring lines and cause pulsations of 
delight in myriads of homes. It is no less pleasurable, perhaps, to 
be able to produce with skilled hands a work of art which is received 
with applause. But in vision I see a little cottage set back among a 
grove of trees and a busy young girl, with love-light in her eyes, flit- 
ting hastily to and fro as she prepares the noon meal. Over in the 
shadow, with seared hands folded and brow serene with heaven-laden 
joy, sits mother more beautiful than in youth, since time has only 
revealed the wondrous depths of character she possessed. We need 
not ask if she is happy; her physical weakness is not felt a burden and 
the bright young girl flitting from room to room leaves an essence of 
joy which penetrates her soul." 

In this connection we have the testimony of many noted women in 
public life. 

Mary A. Livermore, the eloquent lecturer, prided herself upon 
her housewifely accomplishments. In a public lecture she stated 
that she habitually kept her closets and bureau drawers in so tidy a 



THE GIRL AT HOME. 73 

condition that she did not fear their inspection at any time by any 
one. 

Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, in her Reminiscences, recalls some of 
the trials and mortifications which were very real to her, and from 
which she suffered much in her early married life, because of her 
ignorance of the commonest domestic duties. She was the daughter 
of wealthy parents, and had never known the necessity of doing any 
housework nor of having any of the care of a home. Her husband, 
while not poor in the general acceptance of the word, had not the 
wealth of her father, and it became necessary for Mrs. Howe to super- 
intend the management of her home and to engage in unaccustomed 
work for which, by want of training, she was unfitted. Referring to 
this time of inefficiency and inexperience, she tells how she considers 
these matters in the light of her later years: 

"As I now regard these matters, I would say to every young girl, 
rich or poor, gifted or dull: Learn to make a home, and learn this in 
the days in which learning is easy. Cultivate a habit of vigilance and 
forethought. With a reasonable amount of intelligence, a woman 
should be able to carry on the management of a household and should 
yet have time for art and literature of some sort. . . . 

"If you have at your command three hours per diem you may study 
art, literature and philosophy, not as they are studied professionally, 
but in the degree involved in general culture. If you have one hour 
in every day, read philosophy, or learn foreign languages, living or 
dead. If you can command only fifteen or twenty minutes, read the 
Bible, with the best commentaries, and daily a verse or two of the 
best poetry. 

"But surely no love of intellectual pursuits should lead us to dis- 
parage or neglect the household gifts and graces. A house is a king- 
dom in little, and its queen, if she is faithful, gentle and wise, is a 
sovereign indeed." 

Zioris Herald, in commenting on the above, says: "We 
particularly commend this last sentence to our girls. All of the 
advice given by Mrs. Howe is of the highest value, coming, as it 
does, from a woman of her character and intelligence and experience 
who has lived to the advanced age of eighty years. 

"It is certain that much of the domestic unhappiness of the age is 



74 SOCIAL PURITY. 

due to the ignorance and inexperience of girls who become wives with- 
out a knowledge of the duties they must assume in the "kingdom in 
little" to which they go. It is certain that too many girls are reared 
in ignorance of the homely household tasks that some one must do if 
the household machinery is to move evenly and without friction. It 
is certain that the great hue and cry about inefficient servants is largely 
due to the fact that there are so many inefficient mistresses, so many 
wives who are utterly ignorant of everything pertaining to the man- 
agement of home. So many of them have such a false conception 
of the real nobility of work. They think that it is beneath them to 
do housework, and if they marry husbands who can not keep a servant, 
they prefer boarding to housekeeping. If it so happens that they are 
compelled to keep house they are utterly unable to make their homes 
places of peace and restfulness. Everything goes wrong because they 
do not know how to make them go right. They have not learned in 
the time in which learning is easy. 

"Those who have made a study of the domestic discontent and 
unrest of the day are certain that it is in a large measure due to the 
decadence of the good old custom of mothers teaching their daughters 
the domestic virtues. Time was when the American girl began her 
married career thoroughly versed in the management of a home. It 
is true that she was less versed in art and in the intellectual pursuits 
than most of the girls of to-day, but art and literature are of little 
value in the kitchen unless it chances to be culinary art and the litera- 
ture of the cook book. It is possible for a girl to be versed in domes- 
tic skill and also versed in art and literature. Indeed, it is necessary 
that she should know much beside the proper management of her 
household affairs if she is to reign well over her 'kingdom in little.' 
No home presided over by an inefficient wife can ever be a happy 
home." 

Winning Qualities. People call our girl so nice, because — 

She shields others at her own expense. 

When a sacrifice is made she does it cheerfully. 

She avoids discussions in the presence of a third party. 

She speaks politely to all classes of people. 

She apologizes readily when an apology is necessary. 

She never notices an accident to others unless she can help them. 




A SYMPATHETIC FRIEND. 




THE DAUGHTER IN THE HOME. 



THE GIRL AT HOME. 75 

She never accepts a gift or enjoys a pleasure without returning 
hearty thanks for the same. 

She avoids personal jokes that would wound another. 
. She shows an interest in what is interesting to others. 

She alludes to no subject in conversation that would pain another. 

She uses Mr. Emerson's cosmetic freely. 

She is altogether such a girl as is pictured in the following story: 

A Daughter Worth Having. Two gentlemen friends, who had 
been parted for years, met in a crowded city street. The one who 
lived in the city was on his way to meet a pressing business engage- 
ment. After a few expressions of delight, he said: 

"Well, I'm off; I'm sorry, but it can't be helped. I will look for 
you to-morrow at dinner. Remember, two o'clock sharp. I want 
you to see my wife and child." 

"Only one child?" asked the other. 

"Only one," came the answer, tenderly; "a daughter. But she is 
a darling." 

And then they parted, the stranger getting into a street-car for the 
park. After a block or two a group of five girls entered the car. 
They all evidently belonged to families of wealth. They conversed 
well. Each carried a very elaborately decorated lunch basket. Each 
was well dressed. They, too, were going to the park for a picnic. 
They seemed happy and amiable until the car again stopped, this 
time letting in a pale-faced girl of about eleven and a sick boy of four. 
These children were shabbily dressed, and on their faces were looks 
of distress. They, too, were on the way to the park. The gentleman 
thought so; so did the group of girls, for he heard one of them say, 
with a look of disdain: 

"I suppose those ragamuffins are on an excursion, too." 

"I shouldn't want to leave home if I had to look like that, would 
you?" This to another girl. 

"No, indeed; but there is no accounting for taste. I think there 
ought to be a special line of cars for the lower classes." 

All this was spoken in a low tone, but the gentleman heard it. 
Had the child, too? He glanced at the pale face and saw tears. He 
was angry. Just then the exclamation, "Why, there is Nettie; won- 
der where she is going?" caused him to look out upon the corner, 



76 SOCIAL PURITY. 

where a sweet-faced young girl stood beckoning to the car driver. 
When she entered the car she was warmly greeted by the live, and 
they made room for her beside them. They were profuse in exclama- 
tions and questions. 

"Where are you going?" asked one. 

"Oh, what lovely flowers! Whom are they for?" asked another. 

"I'm on my way to Belle Clarke's. She is sick, you know, and 
the flowers are for her. ' ' 

She answered both questions at once, and then glancing toward 
the door of the car, saw the pale girl looking wistfully at her. She 
smiled at the child, a tender look beaming from her beautiful eyes, 
and then, forgetting she wore a handsome velvet skirt and costly 
jacket, and that her shapely hands were covered with well-fitted 
gloves, she left her seat and crossed over to the little one. She laid 
her hand on the boy's thin cheeks as she asked his sister: 

"This little boy is sick, is he not? He is your brother, I am sure." 

It seemed hard for the girl to answer, but finally she said: 

"Yes, miss, he is sick. Freddie never has been well. Yes, miss, 
he is my brother. We're going to the park to see if it won't make 
Freddie better." 

"I am glad you are going," the young girl replied in a low voice, 
meant for no one's ears except those of the child. "I think it will do 
him good; it's lovely there, with the flowers all in bloom. But where 
is your lunch? You ought to have a lunch after so long a ride." 

Over the little girl's face came a flush. 

"Yes, miss, we ought to, for Freddie's sake; but, you see, we 
didn't have any lunch to bring. Tim — he's our brother — he saved 
these pennies so as Freddie could ride to the park and back. I guess 
mebbe Freddie' 11 forget about being hungry when he gets to the park. " 

There were tears in the lovely girl's eyes as she listened, and very 
soon she asked the girl where she lived and wrote the address down 
in a tablet which she took from a bag on her arm. 

After riding a few blocks she left the car, but she had not left the 
little one comfortless. Half the bouquets of violets and hyacinths were 
clasped in the sister's hand, while the sick boy, with radiant face, held 
in his hand a package, from which he helped himself now and then, 
saying to his sister in a jubilant whisper: 



THE GIRL AT HOME. . 77 

"She said we could eat 'em all, every one, when we got to the 
park. What made her so good and sweet to us?" 

And the little girl whispered back: 
. "It's 'cause she's beautiful as well as her clothes." 

When the park was reached the five girls hurried out. Then the 
gentleman lifted the little boy in his arms and carried him out of the 
car across the road into the park, the sister, with a heart full of grat- 
itude, following. He paid for a nice ride for them in the goat car- 
riage and treated them to oyster soup at the park restaurant. 

At two o'clock sharp the next day the two gentlemen, as agreed, 
met again. 

"This is my wife," the host said, proudly introducing the comely 
lady; "and this," as a young lady of fifteen entered the parlor, "is my 
daughter. ' ' 

"Ah!" said the guest, as he extended his hand in cordial greeting, 
"this is the dear girl whom I saw yesterday in the street-car. I don't 
wonder you call her a darling. She is a darling, and no mistake. 
God bless her!" 

And then he told his friends what he had seen and heard in the 
horse-car. — New York Evangelist. 

Business Education for Our Daughters. Should our girl receive a 
business education? is a question of serious importance. Many girls 
brought up in homes of comiort and even luxury are often suddenly 
thrown upon their own resources to earn their daily bread. Not this 
alone; they may also be obliged to provide for helpless children and 
an invalid husband. The poorest girls in the world are those not 
taught to do some kind of work. The most forlorn women belong to 
this class. Every girl should learn some trade or some form of busi- 
ness whereby she may be able to earn her own living if necessity 
demand it. The wheel of fortune may swiftly turn; the rich are likely 
to become poor, and the poor rich. Skill added to labor is no disad- 
vantage to any one, and is indispensable to the poor woman with a 
helpless family on her hands. The problem is not merely bricks with- 
out straw; but it may be how to make bricks and buildings without 
clay, mortar or even stubble. Better begin to gather the material and 
have it on hand at call. 



78 SOCIAL PURITY. 

How the Richest Woman in the World Regards a Business Train- 
ing. "When I say that all women should have a business training I 
mean women of all classes — poor, middling rich and well-to-do. The 
assertion does not apply merely to those whose circumstances seem 
to indicate that they may one day be compelled to make their own 
way in the world. Every class of girl will make a better and happier 
woman if she has a business education, whether her womanhood sees 
her a maid, wife, mother or widow. I have heard it stated that for a 
woman to get a business training is to crush all the poetry out of her 
life. This is sheer nonsense. A woman with a knowledge of business 
appreciates music, painting and the other finer things of life just as 
much as the woman who is ignorant of all business matters; and the 
former has the decided advantage, in that she is able to turn her 
knowledge of business into securing more opportunities of seeing and 
appreciating these fine things. She can get more tickets to concerts 
and art galleries, she will have more money to become the possessor 
of more beautiful things than a woman without business training, and 
a woman with a sure income before her feels a great deal more like 
studying poetry than a woman who is compelled to worry about her 
future bread and butter. I have been a business woman for fifty 
years, and am just as fond of pictures and music as any one of my age. 
A business training is but one more accomplishment added to the list 
which the young woman of to-day is expected to acquire, and it is 
absurd to say that its possession will interfere with the proper enjoy- 
ment of any of the other accomplishments. Then, every housekeeper 
is a business woman, the degree of her excellence as a housekeeper 
being the degree of the business training she was provided with before 
she entered upon her domestic duties. The successful and economical 
management of the house calls for the same kind of ability and judg- 
ment that is necessary to the successful management of a commercial 
enterprise." — Hetty Green> in Woman's Home Companion. 

Higher Education. Does the higher education unfit our girls for 
wifehood and motherhood? 

While it is true that many college-bred women lack knowledge of 
household affairs and domestic economy, it is also true that large 
numbers of women who have little or no education are wanting in 
these same qualities. 



THE GIRL AT HOME. 79 

If girls are instructed in household duties and practice the same 
before entering upon college life, the lessons will not be forgotten, 
but the duties will be the better done, because of increased knowledge 
which will show itself in added skill. 

Mrs. Clara Kern Baylisssays: "At the recent meeting of the National 
Educational Association in Detroit, President G. Stanley Hall, of 
Clark University, said that boys and girls should be in separate schools 
and that higher education unfits girls for wives and mothers. 

"The shock caused by these assertions was due wholly to their 
authorship. That an educator of Dr. Hall's acknowledged standing 
should betray such a belated conception of educational ideas was 
enough to arouse his fellow workers. 

"Dr. Hall is reported to have said that his conclusions are as abso- 
lute and as well based as the law of gravitation. 

"He also 'said that girls at the high-school age are fully able to 
keep up in their studies with the boys, but it is done at great expense; 
they use up that force which was intended for something else, and are 
thus unfitted for wifehood and motherhood. 

"Why at great expense if they are fully able? Again, that they are 
fully able presupposes that their mental faculties are equal to those 
of the boys, that the boy and girl stand at the threshold of the high 
school equally equipped for the work before them. It would be inter- 
esting to know who so initiated President Hall into the purposes of 
the Infinite that he can say with authority that it is the divine plan 
for the boy to use his intellectual force in acquiring a high-school 
education, while the girl's intellectual force is to be deflected and, in 
some unexplained way, transmuted into the physical force requisite 
for motherhood. For it is evident that Dr. Hall was thinking of a 
mother merely as a physical being and was forgetting that a good 
mother must not only be capable of bearing and caring for her chil- 
dren during infancy, but must also be their intellectual companion 
and guide during the period of youth; that the model nurse-maid is 
not necessarily a model mother to children in their teens. 

"Who can for a moment believe that it is a misfortune to a child to 
have a mother whose intellect has been sufficiently expanded by the 
ordinary high-school curriculum? True, there may be many young 
women who have received a high-school and college training, who are 



80 SOCIAL PURITY. 

physically unfit to become mothers; but why should Dr. Hall ascribe 
this fact to intellectual discipline rather than to social dissipation 
and, say, the wrong use of corsets? The Chinese think that by 
deforming the feet of their girls they render their women more desir- 
able as mistresses of the household; shall we outdo them by conclud- 
ing that if we dwarf and deform the brains of our girls they will 
become more efficient wives and mothers? 

"But why all this concern about fitting girls for wifehood and 
motherhood and the apparent unconcern about fitting boys for hus- 
bandhood and fatherhood? Are we evolving a race of half-orphans? 
Does the child inherit none of its father's tendencies and is its life 
modeled in no degree after its father's life? Why should we give our 
boys superior opportunities for culture and then exempt them from all 
responsibility in the evolution of the race? Why restrict the intel- 
lectual development of our girls and then lay upon them the whole 
burden of accountability for the moral, mental and physical status of 
coming generations? Or is intelligence an attribute of man only and 
are the ethics of the world in woman's keeping alone? Or, on the 
contrary, is it not true that intelligence and morality are incapable of 
divorce? 

"And since men and women must ever be closely associated through- 
out life, let us not remove our girls and boys from this normal condi- 
tion by placing them in separate schools and giving them a different 
education. In no other country is there such freedom of association, 
in school and out, as in ours. In no other country is there so little 
social, industrial and educational distinction based upon sex; and in 
no other is there so much virtue and domestic felicity, or such admir- 
able mothers. Yet, even here, the chief bane of society is that we 
have not yet eradicated from our lives and literature a somewhat 
undue and abnormal recognition of sex. 

"All this^talk of separate schools and education is a survival from 
old-time dualism. We used to have a dilettanti educated few and a 
toiling, uneducated many. It is the weakness of our educational 
system that we have not yet annulled this divorce between physical 
and mental labor. We used to have inferior females and superior 
males, and it is time we had a common humanity, with a common 
purpose and a common destiny. 



THE GIRL AT HOME. 81 

"Sex has no place in our estimate of individuals, or in our training 
for life. When we have given our girls the best possible preparation 
for living their own lives, we shall have given them the best possible 
preparation for nurturing and directing the lives of their children; and 
conversely, when we have fitted our boys for husbands and fathers, we 
shall have best fitted them for life and its responsibilities. Parent- 
hood is no more the sole end and aim of woman than it is of man. It 
occupies not more than twenty-five of the seventy-five years she ought 
to live. During this period father and mother are both engaged in 
providing for and rearing their offspring. And no better preparation 
for this can be given them than the preparation which fits them to 
live. When boys and girls are thoroughly equipped for the seventy- 
five years, they are equipped for any of the incidents that occur by 
the way — even for the most important and most sacred of life's inci- 
dents — parenthood. ' ' 

Upon this question, Margaret E. Sangster speaks with no uncertain 
sound: 

"If I were a girl again and could, even at the cost of much self- 
denial, take a college course, I would certainly do so. It might well 
be a question, however, whether, to accomplish this, I should insist 
upon or accept too large a sacrifice from my parents. That would be 
for my conscience to decide. College does a great deal more for a 
woman than simply to give her a diploma at the conclusion of a pre- 
scribed course of instruction. It rounds off her angles; it brings her 
into touch with girls from other states in the Union, and from other 
antecedent conditions of training than her own; it broadens her scope 
and puts tools into her hand; it gives her intelligent appreciation of the 
best in art and life. For all her future days, whether she shall live 
quietly at home as wife and mother, as daughter and sister, or engage 
in some active career, it assures her in its alumnae association a circle 
of congenial acquaintances and a certain intangible camaraderie, 
which will give moral and spiritual support, alike in New York apart- 
ment house, and orange grove in Florida, or a log cabin in Idaho. ' ' 

Mrs. Mary Roberts Smith, associate professor of sociology in the 
Leland Stanford Junior University, has rendered a valuable service in 
collecting comparative statistics of college and non-college women in 
relation to marriage, motherhood and health, Her records cover the. 



82 SOCIAL PURITY. 

cases of 343 married college women and 313 married non-college 
women. The result was published in a bulletin of the American Sta- 
tistical Society of Boston. The non-college women were the sisters, 
cousins or friends of the college women and thus represent much the 
same social environment. 

The following resume of Mrs. Smith's report was printed in the 
New York World: 

1. The college women marry two years later in life than the non- 
college women (at 26.3 vs. 24.3 years of age). 

2. The age of marriage for both classes has been growing later 
during the last thirty years. 

3. The college women have a higher percentage (55) of male 
children as compared with non-college women (47.7). 

4. The percentage of births of children per years of marriage is 
slightly larger among the college women than among the non-college 
women. 

5. There is no measurable difference between the two classes in 
regard to health before or after marriage, or in regard to the health 
or mortality of children. 

6. Before marriage more than one-half of the college women were 
engaged in teaching and nearly three-fourths were engaged in some 
occupation outside of their own homes, while less than one-fourth of 
the non-college women were teaching and only slightly more than 
one-third engaged in other outside occupations. In other words, col- 
lege training promotes economic independence. 

7. Three-fourths of the college women married college men, while 
only one-half of the non-college women married college men. (Co- 
education promotes matrimony among the "coeds.") 

8. Sixty-five per cent, of the college women, as compared with 
thirty-seven per cent, of the non-college women, married professional 
men. 

9. From the financial standpoint the college women married 
better than the non-college women. 

In other words, the test of figures in a fair comparison shows that 
while the time spent in college postpones the age of marriage by two 
years, a college education neither impairs the health of woman nor 
unfits her for marriage or motherhood or economic independence, nor 
diminishes in any way her prospects of marrying well and suitably. 

It would be interesting to know the result of a further inquiry into 
the relative efficiency of the college woman and the non-college 
woman in all departments of life. We believe it would show the 
advantage of a college education for women. 



THE GIRL AT HOME. 83 

In the World. So far we have seen this ideal maiden in the 
pleasant atmosphere of a Christian home. Here she has been guided 
and shielded by every device of watchful love. Vice and evil have 
been granted no license 'neath the sheltered walls of home; they 
have been sedulously kept at bay by parental care. 

Her mother has been her confidante, her counselor, her best friend. 

But a change inevitably comes. The loving daughter, the trusted 
and trusting sister looks beyond the outer door of her happy home for 
new and untried pleasures. These she meets at every turn in her 
young life's journey. Amid the new scenes and unwonted pleasures 
come also bitter disappointments, betrayed confidence, blighted hopes 
and a long train of treacherous devices to win her from that purity 
with which she heretofore has been surrounded. Now comes danger. 
Just at this point she must be upheld by those firm principles which 
have been hers by birth and education. 

New Friends. Perhaps she is away from home in a distant school 
surrounded by companions of her own age. Intimacies may be 
formed which will wean her from her best friend, her mother. The 
lips that have opened to this good friend every secret of her young 
heart, are now sealed. The chum of the schoolroom now receives her 
confidence and favors. Other friends are crowded out if our young 
lady is not cautious and wise. 

Does my young lady reader see herself in the above sketch? If 
so, my dear girl, let me tell you that a good friend is a gift from God. 
But do not neglect the old for the new. If your new friend is sensible 
and true, she will bid you still to count your mother first, your family 
next; she will never seek to displace them in your affections nor be 
jealous of their right to you. 

Avoid Slang. As you would be true to your mother, so be true to 
your mother-tongue. Among a bevy of buzzing, chatting school-girls 
it is very easy to drop the plain home speech and adopt the sometimes 
expressive, but never elegant, slang. 

To do so is to take a downward step in manners, and step by step 
bad morals may be reached. 'Tis first the thought, and then the 
word, and later the deed. That which is begun in fun very often 
becomes a habit which is difficult to overcome when the harm of it is 
seen. 



84 SOCIAL PURITY. 

As you had influence in the home, so you have in school and 
society. Do you use it? Is your virtue vigorous, your character force- 
ful, your will resolute? If so, you will be a power for good among 
your youthful associates. You will hold a steady, moral sway over 
your young friends and the reflex influence shall descend in blessings 
on your own head. 

Beauty. Perhaps you are endowed with beauty of face and figure. 
This may be a dangerous possession, an unfortunate inheritance. No 
gift is so general and so widely abused by young women as the gift of 
beauty. It should not be so; it is not so of necessity. A beautiful 
face and symmetrical form are to be admired; they appeal to our 
aesthetic sense; they possess a charm when not used as a cloak to van- 
ity and selfishness. A beautiful face should be but the servant of the 
inward beauty of mind and soul. But many times this gift makes a 
young woman haughty, careless and indifferent to others whom she 
binds as slaves. Many beautiful women are indolent and vain and 
good for nothing but to look at. They become a snare and a tempta- 
tion to the opposite sex, who, like themselves, seek only the gratifica- 
tion of their selfish desires. 

But beauty used aright never tempts to wrong-doing, never leads 
astray. True beauty is the outward expression of inward grace, which 
does not fade with time, nor is it marred by disease. 

Wealth. Possibly you have inherited wealth, which, like beauty, 
is also a dangerous gift, but if rightly and generously used is not only 
a blessing to self, but a boon to others. . 

Wealth has been the means of ruining many by suppressing active 
energy and removing incentives to work. When one has what one 
needs and wants without making any effort to get it, much is lost in 
the way of discipline; so that wealth is a questionable good. Much 
depends on the one who possesses it. Many young people would be 
much better without it, though few look upon it in this light. 

As you have given your best self to your home friends, so give of 
your best to school and society. Make the most of your influence for 
good among your associates. Do you ask, what shall it recompense 
me? He who gives most shall receive most, is the Bible teaching. 
To you it shall be given in ''good measure, pressed down, and shaken 
together and running over, ' ' 



THE GIRL AT HOME. 85 

The Dawn of Love. You are now thinking new thoughts, dreaming 
strange day-dreams and seeing fanciful visions. New objects force 
your attention and demand recognition, and you timidly ask, "May I 
receive the special attention of a gentleman friend?" Certainly you 
may if he is truly a gentleman, and such a one as you think your 
parents would approve. 

A New Joy. It is natural that as you reach out in maturer thought 
and feeling a new experience should come into your life, a new joy 
into your heart. 

This is the dawn of a new day. Under this strange new feeling, 
the world looks different, life takes on a new meaning, it has a fuller 
and deeper significance. This strange dream, this new experience, call 
it love, or what you will, is not to be cast aside as silly or sentimental. 
It is meant by a wise Creator to be properly entertained, to be jeal- 
ously guarded and kept until you can bestow it upon a worthy object. 

"True love's the gift which God hath given 
To man alone beneath the heaven; 
Its holy flame forever burneth, 
From heaven it came, to heaven returneth. 
It is not fantasy's hot fire, 
It liveth not in fierce desire, 
It is the secret sympathy, 
The silver link, the silken tie, 
Which heart to heart, and mind to mind 
In body and in soul doth bind." 

Danger— There Are Traitors in the World. It will be remem- 
bered that in the home all were friends. It must also be known that 
out in the world are many traitors. They may mask as friends only 
to win and betray. All may be well if the enemy be alone outside. 
Troy could never have been taken had there not been the enemy 
within to open the gates. 

Our girl can never be harmed if within her nature she have no 
enemy that will open the gates of the citadel to the outside foe. A 
girl whose moral nature has been cultivated, whose weaker tendencies 
have been fortified, whose lower passions have been subdued, whose 
actions speak of the purity of her soul and the chastity of her life, 
will know by intuition whom she can trust, and a young man will like- 
wise know that no impure word or deed will be permitted in her presence. 



8b SOCIAL PURITY. 

A young woman who is accustomed to meet her brother's friends 
in her own home, and to mingle with them in the schoolroom is not 
so likely to be imposed upon or led astray as if she were never allowed 
in earlier years to associate with the opposite sex. 

By being kept from their society, she will have her attention the 
more directly drawn to them by the law of opposition. She will also 
be more at a loss to know how to behave properly in their company 
when once the restraint is removed. A young lady accustomed to 
mingle with young gentlemen under the home roof or among older 
friends will be polite and cordial without being familiar. She will act 
toward young men as she would have her girl friends act toward her 
brother. She will treat another's brother as she would have hers 
treated. To a strange young man she will hold herself aloof till she 
finds him trustworthy. 

Modesty and Virtue Her Defenders. She will value her own worth, 
she will honor her own virtue. She will consider her own body as 
sacred from even the touch of the opposite sex. In this way she will 
be her own defender. At the least intimation of undue familiarity, 
she will by tone and look ward off the first approach. A young man 
may, by very carelessness, do that which to a young lady of refined 
taste would be an act of impropriety, but more likely he will purposely 
take the opportunity to test her strength of character. It may be only 
a touch or a look, but if she maintain her dignity, she will be the 
more highly respected. 

A young man may be made to feel that he can take no liberties 
whatever. The safest way is to let him know that the very first 
advance will be repulsed. Some young men, seemingly virtuous, will 
test a young woman to ascertain how far he dare go. If she hesitate, 
falter and only partly resist improper advances of word or act, he 
will be tempted to persist until she yields, and he gets what he desires. 
If he persists in unpleasantly touching a young lady's hand or arm, or 
an ornament on her person, in spite of her request that he should keep 
hands off, be assured that his intentions are not right. It is best to rid 
one's self entirely of such company. 

Timidity Must Give Place to Bravery. A young lady can not 
afford in such a case to be timid. She should call her courage to the 
front and valiantly battle for her right. A young woman's virtue is 



THE GIRL AT HOME. 87 

her priceless treasure, and should be of spotless whiteness. It is easy 
to cheapen one's self. No one does this intentionally, but by very 
passiveness, or a desire to be agreeable, many young ladies do not win 
the respect of those whom they wish to please. 

Kisses and Caresses Fraught with Danger. Our young lady will 
keep her kisses and caresses for her own brothers and father until that 
circle shall so enlarge as to include her husband. Do we hear you say, 
"What! exclude the caress of my lover?" Yes, until he has been 
truly tried and not found wanting, till a formal engagement has been 
made and the wedding day near at hand. The favor will be more 
appreciated when granted. 

Should an engagement be broken off for a good and sufficient rea- 
son, it would not be pleasant to remember that you had lavished 
caresses upon an unworthy man, or sat on the lap of another woman's 
future husband, encircled by his arms. A young married man once 
boasted that many a time a certain young lady had sat upon his lap. 
Such a statement must be anything but gratifying to a sensible and 
sensitive young woman, and certainly can not be much more pleasant 
to the wife of such a man. 

It is not necessary to be physically demonstrative in order to enjoy 
the companionship or even friendship of the opposite sex. Indeed, 
demonstrations of affection should be reserved for the very few among 
our acquaintances. It is only natural that we should enjoy the com- 
panionship of some, that we should admire the genius and native 
ability of others, that we should live in the friendship of a few, 
that we should want the genuine love of a still smaller number. 

Real Love. But above all there is one thing, one possession that 
every human heart craves. The heart yearns for that peculiar posses- 
sion, that complete confidence and trust, that all-powerful, all-con- 
trolling love of one person, of the opposite sex, for all time. 

This desire is planted in the human heart for a wise purpose. It 
is seed in the garden of the Lord from which springs every variety of 
human kind. It is the potent factor in all human affairs. Human 
love consists of two parts — the first, that blending of two distinct 
natures into a complete and perfect whole, and second, that parental 
instinct, the desire for procreation, which we share with the animal 
world beneath us. 



88 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Without doubt the highest and purest love which is engendered 
between man and woman results from the attraction of their minds 
and souls. 

But there must be a perfect union of body as well as soul before 
true marriage, the natural outcome of love, takes place. We speak 
now of the article marriage — not the ceremony. Mutual love is made 
the essential condition of marriage. How shall it be ascertained that 
a true love between the opposite sexes exists? 

Courtship. What do we mean by courtship and what is its purpose? 
Marriage is not necessarily a blessing; it may be just the opposite — a 
curse. How shall this last condition be avoided? Possibly by a con- 
scientious and judicious courtship. Courtship is that process whereby 
young people of opposite sex persuade themselves and each other that 
they each are the complement of the other, and that therefore they 
should unite in marriage. The object then is to secure a fitting life com- 
panion. It is designed that men and women may get well acquainted 
with those to whom they seek to be bound in the closest relationship 
for life. By their frequent meeting together they may learn much of 
the other's habits, tastes and peculiarities. If young men and women 
are true to themselves, if they do not assume that which they do not 
possess, if they shun deceit, each may obtain a fair estimate of the 
other's character and disposition by means of a timely courtship. It 
is well for young people to meet under varied circumstances, to mingle 
freely in the other's family, to observe each other in the home rela- 
tionship before agreeing to unite fortunes and lives. But to many we 
fear this is only a pleasant pastime, or possibly what is worse, a 
period of flirtation which results more or less disastrously. 

During this probationary state, the tendency of young people is to 
be much alone, to indulge in caresses and physical expressions of 
endearment which are not only injudicious but positively harmful. 
If marriage is not to be a lottery, this is the time to be on the look- 
out. One must not keep one eye open for perfections, and the other 
closed to defects. Young people may talk on business matters with- 
out seeming mercenary. 

Learn Your Intended's Opinion of a Wife's Relation to Himself. 
As a young woman, you may and should learn your intended's opinion 
of a wife's relation to himself. You may learn whether he expects 



THE GIRL AT HOME. 89 

you to be a business partner, sharing his profits and being responsible 
for the outlay of the same, or whether he expects you to be a pretty 
toy created only for his amusement and subject to his caprices. If 
a young woman is worthy to take a man's name, if she is able to 
share his responsibilities, if she is capable to manage his home, if she 
is wise enough to bring up his children, she is certainly entitled to a 
fair share of the profits of the business in which she is a partner. 

Young people, during this period, may also talk with propriety of 
the responsibilities of parentage as it shall touch their united lives. 
Indeed, if this were done in a thoughtful, intelligent, delicately-worded 
manner, many false notions might be righted, and the future would 
not be spent in useless lamentations over grievous mistakes. 

Mrs. Mary Wood Allen wisely says: ''There seems to me more 
indelicacy and more danger from long evenings spent in murmuring 
ardent protestations of love and indulging in embraces and endear- 
ments than in a frank, serious conversation on the realities and 
responsibilities of marriage, an exchange of earnest thoughts, voiced 
in chaste, well-chosen language — a conversation which by its very 
solemnity is lifted out of the realm of sense-pleasure into the dignified 
domain of science and morality." 



CHAPTER V. 

LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE — GIRLHOOD. 

Puberty. We now come to a province peculiarly your own. 
There came a time in your life when a change occurred both in mind 
and body, and so marked was it, that you scarcely knew yourself, and 
you were tempted to ask, "Is this I or some one else?" 

In body there was a feeling of general weariness, quite unlike your 
former care-free life. Perhaps you were troubled with headaches, 
pains in the limbs, shifting from place to place, now here, now there, 
now somewhere else. Often there was a sense of heaviness in the 
small of the back, and a pressure about the ovaries, as if something 
were weighting down the abdomen. 

You often had nervous, chilly sensations, and if out walking, you 
lagged behind from depressive weakness. These were the accompani- 
ments of a great physical change. If you remember, you grew tall 
very rapidly. If you met a friend who had been absent for a year or 
two, she said, "Is it possible this is the same little girl who played 
'fox and geese' in our door-yard only a year or two ago?" Your cloth- 
ing needed altering, not only as to length, but as to width. If you 
were chubby and short-waisted, you grew more slender at the waist, 
but fuller and more rounded at the chest; the hips widened, and hair 
grew under the arms and upon other parts of the body. Perhaps you 
were of a delicate, slender build; if so, you probably grew larger and 
more robust in appearance after the change was fully made and you 
had settled into regularity. At this time, from the age of twelve to 
sixteen, the organs which mark your sex waken as if from a deep 
sleep, and become energetic and active. The blood becomes richer 
and also more vigorous, so that there are apt to be congestions of 
various organs, which frequently find relief in nosebleeds. 

As the changes progress and become settled, you recover from your 
languor, and the present outlook is more cheerful and the future vivid 
with golden light. You passed from the realm of childhood into that 
of womanhood with these changes. 

90 




BEFORE MARRIAGE. 




"The heart feels most when the lips move not." 
LOVE-MAKING IN REVOLUTIONARY DAYS. 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 91 

We have spoken of the outward appearance of the body at the 
time of this change, which is known among scientists as the age of 
puberty. The internal organs assume new functions and powers, 
and the system demands a change suited to these new conditions. 

Ovulation. All animal life has its beginning in an egg, as you 
have read in the chapter on "The Origin of Life." This egg, or 
ovum, is a production of the female. In the human body when it is 
complete in its development, it passes from the ovary through a tube 
into the womb. If, while passing to the womb, the egg should come 
in contact with the fertilizing principle of the male, a new life is 
imparted to it. It then will attach itself to the walls of the womb, 
where it will remain and develop into a child. If it escapes the male 
principle, it passes out through the vagina and is lost. 

This passing away of the egg, or ovum, is called ovulation, and 
occurs in the woman about every twenty-eight days. It used to be 
thought that these periods were in some way connected with the 
phases of the moon, but from careful observation no such relation has 
been found. 

The ovum does not mature or ripen until the girl reaches the age 
of twelve or thirteen in the temperate zones. In the warmer climates 
ovulation commences a year or two earlier, and in the colder zones a 
year or two later. There are exceptions to these general laws. Girls 
of ten years have ovulated regularly in the United States, while others 
have commenced and then made a pause of several months. 

Menstruation. The uterus is lined with a delicate membrane, and 
at the time of the passing away of the ripened egg, or ovum, this 
membrane becomes swollen and soft, and bleeds for several days. 
This blood passes through the vagina and is known as menstruation. 
The functions of menstruation last on an average of about thirty 
years of a woman's life. Beginning at the age of puberty, it continues 
till the age between forty-five and fifty, unless interrupted by disease 
or pregnancy. When a girl sees this sign of ovulation, she may know 
that the maternal period is at hand, when it is possible for her to 
become a mother. 

Although it is possible for so young a woman to become a mother, 
it would not be wise for her to do so, as her body must yet undergo 
important changes before she is fitted for child-bearing. Until she 



9^ SOCIAL PURITY. 

has reached her full stature, has attained complete development and 
has entered upon a life replete with health and vigor, she will not be 
capable of endowing her child with a sound, healthy body. 

Menstruation should be devoid of suffering, but under our artificial 
habits of life, this has come to be the exceptional state of woman in 
the more civilized countries. 

Occasionally we find women who suffer no more than slight incon- 
venience during this period, while the larger number are attended by 
languor and more or less pain. Some are obliged to lie abed for two 
or three days and suffer intensely. 

As a rule those women who live in accordance with the laws of 
nature, spending much time in active outdoor exercise, escape with 
the least illness. 

Mrs. Stockham, author of Tokology, says: "To errors in woman's 
dress more than to any other one thing is the unnatural pain due. 
Women are burdened with heavy clothing, and every vital organ is 
restricted by bands and bones. It is not unusual to count from six- 
teen to eighteen thicknesses of cloth worn so tightly about the pliable 
structure of the waist that actual deformity is produced. " Next to 
unhealthf ul dress, deficient diet and want of proper exercise are causes 
for painful menstruation. While the diet may be plentiful, it may 
not be of such a kind as will best nourish the system, and the exercise 
indulged in may be such as to irritate the nerves and excite the sexual 
passions. 

A Critical Time. The years of puberty are a critical time. Over- 
work, physically or mentally, and excessive social duties amounting 
to dissipation, are common causes of early ill-health. There is no 
time in life when the laws of hygiene should be more closely observed 
than now. The girl who has been allowed to be out evening after 
evening at parties and society gatherings, coming and going at her 
own will, will suffer the penalty of such a course. While the girl who 
has been properly mothered, whose muscles are strong, whose nerves 
are vigorous, whose thoughts are pure and whose virtues are untainted 
by secret vices will probably need but little special care. However, 
even she should be prepared by her mother in anticipation of this 
event, which means so much to womankind. 

At this period in a girl's life the seeds of hereditary and constitu- 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 93 

tional diseases manifest themselves. Dr. James Foster Scott says, in 
speaking on the subject of puberty: ''It is well recognized that this is 
a critical period, during which the hereditary influences for health or 
disease, for good or bad tendencies, for insanity or mental equilibrium 
are most felt. . . . The change in the female is more profound than 
in the male, and the bodily disturbances of greater intensity; so much 
so, that few girls pass through this period without marked constitu- 
tional derangements, or some of the multiform types of hysteria." 

Dr. Napheys says of hereditary diseases: "They draw fresh malig- 
nancy from the new activity of the system. The first symptoms of 
tubercular consumption, of scrofula, of obstinate and disfiguring skin 
diseases, of hereditary insanity, of congenital epilepsy, of a hundred 
terrible maladies, which from birth have lurked in the child, biding 
the opportunity of attack, suddenly spring from their lairs, and hurry 
her to the grave or to the madhouse." 

Of nervousness and hysteria, Dr. Mary Wood Allen says: "I would 
like to call attention to the great evil of romance-reading, both in the 
production of premature development and in the creation of morbid 
mental states which will tend to the production of physical evils, such 
as nervousness, hysteria and a host of maladies which largely depend 
upon disturbed nerves. ... It is not only that novel-reading engen- 
ders false and unreal ideas of life, but the descriptions of love-scenes, 
of thrilling, romantic episodes find an echo in the girl's physical sys- 
tem and tend to create an abnormal excitement of her organs of sex, 
which she recognizes only as a pleasurable emotion, with no compre- 
hension of the physical origin or the evil effects. Romance-reading 
by young girls will, by this excitement of the bodily organs, tend to 
create a premature development, and the child becomes physically a 
woman months, or even years, before she should." 

Suppression. Anything that lowers the vital forces of the system, 
such as poor nourishment, sedentary life, overwork, late hours, exces- 
sive grief or debilitating diseases, may cause a suppression of the 
menses, a term applied to the process of ovulation and menstruation. 

Sometimes sudden exposure to cold when the body is overheated 
will produce the same effect. Bathing in cold water when exhausted, 
getting the feet wet and allowing them to remain so, will stay the 
menses for a time. First, the general health should be maintained; 



94 SOCIAL PURITY. 

if, from some accidental cause, the menses fail to reappear, the patient 
may take some warm drink, and a hot foot-bath or a hip-bath, and lie 
down in a comfortable position, secure from any draft and warmly 
covered. Should she have pain, a rubber bag filled with hot water 
may be applied to the vulva and lower part of the abdomen. Also 
a regular action of the bowels should be secured as soon as possible, 
when the relaxed parts will help to secure relief. 

Hot hop tea, ginger tea, tansy and all those old-fashioned remedies 
are good; probably the real essence lies in the heat and the perspira- 
tion which follows. 

Self-Pollution. Keep thyself pure, for the pure in heart shall see 
God. From early childhood you may have been exposed to the dan- 
ger of contamination from immoral or exciting books of romance, from 
obscene pictures, or bad companions; happy are you if you have 
remained pure in thought and deed. You have been admonished of 
evil practices by a careful and wise mother, but there are girls and 
young women who have not had the careful training that has fallen to 
your lot, and for their sake we would give a word of warning. 

You have learned that the bearing and rearing of children is the 
peculiar work of woman. You have also learned that the organs used 
for this purpose are aroused from their dormant condition to a new 
activity at an early age. As the generative organs develop, a girl's 
attention is more or less directed to them. These organs are the seat 
of great nervous susceptibility, and by exciting these nerves a pleasant 
sensation is caused. The proper course for a girl to pursue is to allow 
herself to think about these organs as little as possible. All lustful 
thoughts are seriously injurious, not only to the organs themselves, 
but to the entire body and mind. The more delicate the organ, the 
more sacred its use, and the more care should be taken to avoid its 
abuse. 

The generative organs are the most delicate and sacred we possess. 
They were given us by God for a wise purpose; to misuse them would 
dishonor God and disqualify ourselves from bearing healthy, happy 
children. 

Any handling of these organs to produce a pleasurable sensation 
causes more blood to go there than is needed. Thus the blood that 
should go to nourish other parts of the body is called away, and the 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 95 

other parts are robbed of nutrition, and consequently grow weak and 
diseased. Many girls who are victims of this habit do not know of its 
dangers. 

Dr. Mary Wood Allen says: " Others who would not stoop to a 
mechanical exciting of themselves do so through thoughts, and do not 
know that they are just as guilty of self-abuse as the girl who uses the 
hand or other mechanical means. The results of self-abuse are most 
disastrous. It destroys mental power and memory, it blotches the 
complexion, dulls the eye, takes away the strength, and may even 
cause insanity. It is a habit most difficult to overcome, and may not 
only last for years, but in its tendency be transmitted to one's chil- 
dren. ' ' 

In the following I quote the observations of a noted physician: "If 
we notice a child or a young gentleman or lady who has usually been 
healthy and bright or intelligent, beginning to look delicate, pale-faced 
or bloodless, with sunken, ghastly eyes, with or even without dark 
semicircular lines beneath the eyes, with redness of the edges of the 
eyelids, with a dull, heavy, sleepy look of the eyes; if there is a 
clammy, greasy feeling of the skin, especially of the palms of the 
hands; if there is a weakness in the small of the back, with more or 
less pain; if the ends of the hair are split, the appetite variable; if 
many of the above symptoms exist, we have a right to suspect that 
the child or adult is addicted to this vice." 

This practice often leads to insanity and imbecility, and is in itself 
vile and only vile. Let it be understood that the habit has its birth 
in the mind. The mind must first be poisoned before the habit is 
formed, and it is a mental weakness or disease. At first the act is a 
voluntary one, but it has a tendency to pass beyond control. How 
careful then we should be of our thoughts that they should be pure. 

If one has been unfortunate enough to contract this miserable, 
degrading habit, how shall it be overcome? The question is a serious 
one, and it will require persistent, resolute effort to answer it correctly. 
I again quote from Dr. Allen: "The very first thing to do is to change 
the mental attitude in regard to the whole matter of sex; to hold it in 
thought as sacred, holy, consecrated to the highest of all functions, 
that of procreation. Recognize that conserved and controlled, it 
becomes a source of energy to the individual. Cleanse the mind of 



96 



SOCIAL PURITY. 



all polluting images by substituting this purer thought; then go to 
work to establish correct habits of living in dress, diet, exercise, etc. 
See to it that there are no such causes of pelvic congestions as pro- 




" The House We Live In" for nine months: showing the ample room 
'provided by Nature when uncontracted by inherited inferiority of form or 
artificial dressing. 




A Contracted Pelvis. Deformity and Insufficient Space, 
lapsed bowels, caused by tight clothing or constipation; keep the skin 
active, and, above all, keep the mind healthfully occupied. 

"The victim of self-abuse has, through the frequent repetition of 
the habit, built up an undue amount of brain that is sensitive to local 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 97 

irritation of the sex-organs or to mental pictures of sex-pleasure. She 
must now allow this part of the brain to become quiescent, and she 
should go to work to build up other brain centers. Let her train her 
sight by close observation of form, color, size, location. Let her cul- 
tivate her sense of hearing in the study of different qualities of sound, 
tone, pitch, intensity, duration, timbre; her sense of touch, by learn- 
ing to judge with closed eyes of different material, of quality of fiber, 
of the different degrees of temperature, of roughness or smoothness, 
of density; in fact, let her endeavor to become alert, observant along 
all lines of sense-perception." 

Is it not worth the effort when we realize the pernicious effects of 
such a practice? Let me tell you what Mrs. Dr. Millers says of this 
habit: 

"Self-abuse weakens every part of the system. A good many little 
girls and a good many grown-up women die of consumption and liver 
disease and brain disease and many other diseases, just because they 
have wasted their best blood and weakened the system by this vile 
habit. Some become idiots, incapable of taking care of themselves. 
Some become crazy; in the insane asylums all over the land are very 
many who have practiced self-abuse. ' ' 

Another writer on this subject says: "One of the most effective of the 
exciting causes of this practice is wrong habits in eating. That a 
child can be fed on highly-seasoned gross food — lard, eggs, pastry, 
animal food, pepper, salt, candies, pickles, tea, coffee, etc., and, as 
very many are, on some form of alcoholic liquors — and not have 
amative desires is utterly impossible." 

If girls were taught to eat, drink and dress hygienically; were given 
plenty of exercise or housework or light gardening to do, not neglect- 
ing the cultivation of their minds, they would not so readily adopt 
habits of vice. When the habit is formed it is difficult to break. 
The best means to root out the evil are moral restraint, open-air 
exercise, active mental and physical employment, and plain, whole- 
some food, with no stimulating drinks. Then avoid evil companions, 
especially those who have contracted this special habit. 

The Use of Stimulants. Of one pernicious habit I would warn 
every bride and prospective mother, and that is the practice of 
indulging in alcoholic stimulants, be they ever so light. The young 



98 SOCIAL PURITY. 

are peculiarly sensitive to the evil effects of stimulation. Alcohol has 
more power on the babe unborn than on the mother herself. Undi- 
luted alcohol is one of the most deadly poisons, and a single draught 
of it will cause a person's death almost as surely as a draught of 
prussic acid. 

Some people think that the milder drinks, such as wine, beer and 
cider, do not intoxicate, hence are harmless. The stinging, prickling 
sensation given by these finer drinks shows that they contain alcohol, 
and they are intoxicating in just such a degree as they contain alcohol. 

Alcoholism in the parent,- especially in the mother, will produce 
nerve degeneration, and nerve degeneration may be a factor in pro- 
ducing inebriates. Weak and degenerate nerves crave a stimulant, 
and the weakened will yields; the stimulant in the milder form is 
taken. The nerves demand stronger and stronger stimulants, and 
inebriety results. On this topic, Mrs. Dr. Allen says: 

"As a young woman you hold great power over the race in your- 
self and through your influence over others, especially over young 
men. Your influence, wisely used, may save more than one from a 
drunkard's fate, and to use it wisely you should be instructed as to 
the real character of alcohol and its effect on the system." 

It is a startling fact that in our more civilized countries drunken- 
ness is on the increase. Is it to be wondered at when we read such 
items as this taken from a leading paper? 

"A young married woman, who belongs to one of the great families 
of New York, leading in fashionable society, stated in court, where she 
was being examined to determine whether she was sane or insane, 
that frequently she and her father sat up all night and she drank 
whisky and smoked cigarettes. She often smoked forty or fifty ciga- 
rettes a day. At the same time and during one of these all-night sit- 
tings with her father she had taken a whole quart bottle of whisky." 

Rev. J. T. Crippen, of Marion, Iowa, asks, "What will the harvest 
be?" in the following article on woman's connection with inebriety: 

"One hundred thousand persons fall into drunkards' graves 
annually in this country. From the saloons and drinking-places 
recruits are furnished for these depleted ranks. The commonly 
received opinion is that these victims of the drink traffic are men. 
We are slow to admit that a large per cent, are women, A drunken 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 99 

man excites our pity. A drunken woman is indescribably repulsive. 
Among our foreign population, especially in the' cities, large numbers 
of women are victims of the drink habit. 

. "It is declared that among the degraded women who live in the 
'slums' and among the outcasts the number of women who drink is 
fully equal to that of the men. Were the facts known, society would 
be shocked at the use of intoxicants by women claiming respectability 
at 'lunches' and 'dinners.' " He then gives the following statement, 
taken from the daily press, and is vouched for as being true and correct: 

"Careful investigation reveals the following: Of 50 women lunch- 
ing at Delmonico's, 45 used liquor. Of 100 lunching at the Waldorf- 
Astoria, 95 drank. At O'Neill's 85 dined and 72 indulged. Twenty- 
five lunched at Sherry's and 15 drank. At the Manhattan 40 were at 
dinner and all drank. At an early dinner at the Savoy, for 5, 
4 indulged. Twenty-five lunched at Maillard's, at 5 p. m., and 21 
drank. Three hundred and thirty in all 'lunched' and 'dined' and 292 
used intoxicants. The drinks furnished at the different places included 
'cocktails,' 'wine,' 'beer' and 'liquors.' According to the reports, the 
type of women frequenting these places as guests was 'women with 
gray hair, fine-looking young women of thirty and girls of eighteen.' 

"These facts tell a sorry tale. The effects of intoxicants upon the 
individual woman would be the same as upon the individual man, but 
the effect upon the race must be infinitely worse. 

"Some one has said that, when God would make a great man, he 
first makes a good woman. 

"The late P. D. Armour is reported to have said that the important 
thing to know about an individual is to know what kind of a mother 
he had. He regarded the moral and intellectual fiber of the sire as of 
minor consideration. Possibly his views were somewhat extreme, but 
it will be a day of darkness and of danger for America when the use 
of 'cocktails,' 'wine,' 'beer' and 'liquors' at fashionable dinners and 
lunches by our women becomes common. 

"What is alarming about this view of the case is that there is good 
reason to believe that if investigation into the habits of the 'smart set' 
in New York were prosecuted so as to include an examination into the 
customs of 'polite society' in other cities and towns, similar tenden- 
cies would be revealed. 



LofC. 



100 SOCIAL PURITY. 

' 'In the light of these facts, I submit, that it would be well to start 
a reform movement among the women of our land, in order to per- 
suade them to adopt the principle of total abstinence, both for their 
own sake and for the sake of those who shall come after. The law of 
heredity is sure and certain in its operation and the sins not only of 
the fathers, but of the mothers as well, are visited upon the children, 
'unto the third and fourth generation.' " 

There is another influence at work about which I would speak a 
strong word of caution, and that is impurity or lapses from virtue on 
the part of young men. 

Again I quote Dr. Allen: "The law of God is not a double law, 
holding woman to the most rigid code of a 'thou shalt not' and allow- 
ing men the liberty of a 'thou may est.' " 

Frances E. Willard contended that purity's definition is "a white 
life for two." 

Dr. Allen further says: "The penalty inflicted for the violation of 
moral law is one of the most severe, both in its effects upon the indi- 
vidual transgressor and upon his descendants. The most dreadful 
scourge of physical disease, as well as moral degeneracy, follows an 
impure life. This disease, known as syphilis, is practically incurable. 
It may temporarily disappear, only to reappear in some other form 
later in life; and even after all signs have become quiescent in the 
man, they may reappear in his children in some form of transmission. 
Even, one lapse from virtue is enough to taint the young man with 
this dreadful poison, which may be in after years communicated to his 
innocent wife or transmitted to his children. ... If girls were aware 
of all this, they would not only be careful how they marry immoral 
men, but they would shrink from personal contact with them as from 
a viper. Not one, but many girls who have held somewhat lax ideas 
concerning the propriety of allowing young men to be familiar have 
reaped the result in a contamination merely through the touch of the 
lips. 

"To-day a young woman in good social standing is a sufferer from 
this cause. She was acquainted with a young man of respectable 
family, but immoral life. His gaiety had a fascination for her, and 
his reputed wildness only added to the charm. On one evening, as he 
escorted her home and took leave of her on the doorstep, she allowed 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 101 

him to kiss her. It chanced that at the time she had a small sore on 
her lip. The poisonous touch of his lips conveyed the infection 
through this slight abrasion, and she became tainted with the syphil- 
itic virus, and to-day bears the loathsome disfigurement in conse- 
quence." 

It is sad to reflect that the innocent must suffer not only for the 
guilty, but for the thoughtless and the foolish. Not only do little 
innocents suffer the loathsome disease, but they inherit the same 
moral infirmities of the parent, which will be perpetuated still further 
as one generation succeeds another. 

Age to Marry. It has been thought by some that when the age 
of puberty overtakes a young woman that she is capable of reproduc- 
tion, and therefore ready for marriage. This is an error, for marriage 
should be consummated only between a physiologically perfect man 
and woman. Physical perfection implies ripeness, a full growth of 
every organ of the body. 

When puberty first shows itself, the framework of the system, 
which supports the muscular, nervous, arterial and digestive parts, is 
not full grown. This implies that the productive element also is not 
full grown. There are many of the bones that are not completely 
ossified or full grown until the twenty-fifth year. The collar-bone 
does not attain its full growth till the eighteenth year; the scapula, or 
shoulder blade, is not fully formed until the twenty-fifth year, as also 
the bones of the pelvis and leg. It is folly then to argue that woman 
is at her best for the office of reproduction at the age of fourteen or 
sixteen years. She may possibly attain her height at that age, but in 
temperate climates she will continue to grow in breadth and robust- 
ness until the age of twenty-four or twenty-five. If a woman bear 
children when too young, her own growth is arrested; she must divide 
the nutriment between herself and her child, bad health follows, and 
old age will come on all too rapidly. 

It is difficult to lay down a strict rule for the proper age to marry; 
one person may develop and mature long before another. Food, heat 
and surroundings have much to do with the maturing of individuals. 
Heat increases the vital energies of all the organs and renders their 
growth more rapid. Thus we see that women in the tropical climates 
mature earlier, and old age also comes on more rapidly. 



102 SOCIAL PURITY. 

An eminent authority says: "The nearer girls arrive at the age of 
twenty-five before consummating the marriage rite, the greater the 
probability that, physically and morally, they will be protected against 
those risks which precocious marriages bring in their train." 

Perhaps you have reached the age when you think you can with 
safety enter the marriage relation. You have consented to leave the 
old home for the new, to beautify with your skill, and to sanctify 
with devoted affection a new heaven upon this old earth. As you have 
been faithful and true under the parental roof, so continue to be in 
the new home which you are about to institute. 

Yours is a most glorious mission, and the act of marriage is the 
most responsible one in which you can engage. It concerns not only 
your own happiness, but that of your husband and those also who 
shall exist after you are gone. 

Choice of a Husband. See to it then that he who seeks your hand 
and companionship for life is a fit subject to transmit his qualities and 
characteristics to your children, that he be sound in body and free 
from vice. 

Be sure that he has no habits which may tend to weaken the powers 
of your children, or in any way debase or lower their being. Do not 
rely upon appearances alone, but seek to know the truth by careful 
inquiry. 

We have seen in the study of heredity how we may hand down to 
our children and to our children's children those characteristics and 
diseases which we possess. Children's health is impaired, and their 
physical structures poorly balanced and ungainly from various causes 
in harmony with the organizations that unite in the marriage relation. 

It is important also that our young woman who contemplates 
marriage should be very sure that the proposed union is based upon 
genuine love and an adaptation of qualities and temperament that 
will not fail when the duties and trials of life press the heaviest. 

There are certain physical and mental complements, certain moral 
and social adaptations which are necessary to a complete and abiding 
love, such as will stand the test which years of married life will surely 
bring. 

There will be differences of opinion, different standards of judg- 
ment, there may be failures of health and loss of property, but if 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 103 

there be genuine love with those principles of rectitude which are so 
essential to peace in the home, the foundations will stand. 

True Marriage. "True marriage is the life union of one man and 
one woman who are in suitable conditions of health in mind and body, 
of age, of temperament, of convictions and of tastes to enable them 
to live together in harmony and happiness, to assist each other in ful- 
filling the general ends of human life in the development of character 
and performance of duty, and to become the parents of healthy off- 
spring; marriage means just this, no more, no less. . . . 

"The Creator has, for wise ends, implanted certain instincts and 
passions in each member of the human family; as these instincts and 
passions are intimately connected with important ends, they have 
been made strong, and have been closely connected with the central 
organs and functions of the body and mind. They are invaluable 
servants, but bad masters. They must be judicially directed and con- 
trolled, else harm and degradation are certain. ' ' 

Mutual Understanding. It seems to us wise that a young woman 
should not enter into the physical relations of marriage until she has 
talked freely with her companion on these relations. It will save 
her much suffering and perhaps a feeling of utter degradation. 

Henry G. Wright, in a word to young women, by way of advice, 
says: "Learn distinctly his views and feelings and his expectations in 
regard to that purest and most ennobling of all the functions of your 
nature, and the most sacred of all the intimacies of conjugal life. 
Your self-respect, your beauty, your glory, your heaven as a wife, 
will be more directly involved in his feelings, views and practices in 
regard to that relation than in all other things. As you would not 
become a weak, a miserable, imbecile, unlovable and degraded wife 
and mother in the very prime of your life, come to a perfect under- 
standing with your chosen one ere you commit your person to his 
keeping in the sacred intimacies of home. Beware of that man who, 
under pretense of delicacy, modesty and propriety, shuns conversation 
with you on this relation and on the hallowed function of maternity. 
Concealment and mystery in him toward you on all other subjects 
pertaining to conjugal union might be overlooked; but if he conceals 
his views here, rest assured it bodes no good to your purity and hap- 
piness as a wife and a mother. You can have no more certain assur- 



104 SOCIAL PURITY. 

ance that you are to be victimized, your soul and body offered up, 
slain, on the altar of his sensualism, than his unwillingness to con- 
verse with you on subjects so vital to your happiness. In the rela- 
tion he seeks with you will he, practically, hold his manhood in 
abeyance to the calls of your nature and to your conditions, and con- 
secrate its passions and its powers to the elevation and happiness of 
his wife and children? If not, your maiden soul had better return to 
God unadorned with the diadem of conjugal and maternal love, than 
that you should become the wife of such a man, and the mother of his 
children. . . . Doubtless woman might save herself much anguish and 
suffering if she would approach man frankly, in womanly love, tender- 
ness and dignity, and open to him the depths of her soul in regard to 
maternity. Men are not all below the brutes in their nature. If 
woman were true to purity, to justice, to her own nature, and would 
be just and true to her husband and her children, and freely and lov- 
ingly converse with man on these relations and functions, he would 
often, with manly pride and affection, respond to her. Let wives 
then be true to themselves if they would have their husbands true to 
them." 

Respect yourself, your person. You will gain nothing, not even 
the love of your husband, which you so much desire to retain, by 
submitting to wrong and outrage. Instead of strengthening his love, 
you will but strengthen his passion. That which seemed the most 
genuine love sometimes proves to have been but passion. 

Marital Indulgence. The two, however, are naturally combined 
for a wise purpose, and a moderate amount of sexual indulgence in a 
natural manner may be beneficial to both parties. Intelligent people 
with consciences will study with care this subject, and with a little 
time and experience will be able to settle the matter wisely and to the 
advantage of all concerned. In living together as husband and wife, 
our main duty is to compromise, not principles, but those things and 
pleasures especially our own, which yet can not be indulged in with- 
out injustice or injury to the other. 



CHAPTER VI. 

LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE — ESSENTIALS. 

Good Health. Before a young woman enters the marriage state 
she should look well to the house in which she lives, the dwelling 
she has occupied since her eyes opened to the light, and which she 
will continue to inhabit till the door of eternity opens to let her in 
and she drops this house of flesh. She should give such attention to 
her physical condition as will insure her good — if not perfect— health 
and pleasant marital relations. 

Good health is the first requisite for a life of usefulness and happi- 
ness. This is more particularly true of a young woman about to 
enter the marriage relation, and it should be her special care to obtain 
it and have it well established before taking this important step. In 
early childhood before the serious consequences of ill-health are real- 
ized by the girl herself, her mother should seek to enforce such a 
healthful mode of living as will insure the best possible degree of 
health and corresponding comfort and happiness. 

A sick, nervous or improperly nourished body makes sad havoc in 
an otherwise happy home. The mind is greatly hampered by the bad 
condition of the body; it can not perceive so clearly nor reason so 
efficiently. Many an irritating word, many an exhibition of temper is 
but the result of an impaired physical system. Let the stomach 
become disordered, and the once sunny temper and cheerful disposi- 
tion will give place to the gruff or impatient word, the exasperating 
scowl and the shambling gait of indifference or indolence. 

Treacherous digestive apparatus was probably the cause of the 
want of harmony in the Carlyle household, and the spirit of wrangling 
holds sway in many other homes for the same reason. 

We come into the world with a certain amount of vitality measured 
out to us as our inheritance, which, other things being equal, deter- 
mines the length of our lives. When this is consumed we cease to 
live. It may be properly consumed or it may be squandered, either 
by a slow process or suddenly by some unwise act. 

105 



106 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Every thought we think, every movement we make, every emotion 
we indulge in, every stroke of work we do, uses up a certain amount 
of this vitality. This, however, is a necessary consumption. Every 
time we violate a law of health we consume a portion of vitality; in 
so far, we help to break down our constitution. Every cold we take 
makes us less able to stand exposure, and weakens the parts affected. 
Every sickness, every overstrained nerve, every overburdened organ, 
every departure from nature's laws, encroaches upon our vitality, 
weakens the constitution and finally breaks down the health. 

Each organ of the body has a separate work, yet each is designed 
by a wise Creator to cooperate with all the others for the good of the 
whole body. Any single act, or any habit that interferes with the 
normal action of any organ injures not only that organ and restricts 
its function, but also impedes the work of the body as a whole. Any 
act or habit that interferes with the complete development of the 
body or any of its parts will affect the activity of the brain and energy 
of the mind and will, making them weak and sluggish. Some one has 
said: "A sound mind in a sound body is sound logic," which statement 
sounds perfectly reasonable. 

Any article of dress that confines the body, that prevents freedom 
of motion, that compresses the vital organs, is harmful, unhealthful 
and should never be tolerated by a sensible woman. 

Attire Conducive to Health. We concern ourselves for the little 
foot-bound sufferer of China, we pity the flat-headed sons of the red 
man, we ridicule the pierced features of the South Sea Islanders, and 
show contempt for every malformation not our own; but are these 
practices any worse than the one which arrests the growth of the 
waists of civilized womanhood? 

That 1 fashionable strait-jacket, the corset, is responsible for many 
evils, but not for all of them. Any article of clothing that restricts 
motion or prevents the healthful action of the vital organs will result 
in serious injury not only to the possessor, but to her children yet 
unborn. No young woman who wears tight shoes, tight garters, tight 
waist-bands, tight corsets, tight and high collars, can have as good 
circulation of blood, as perfect a nerve action, as healthful and free a 
respiration or as good a digestion as one whose clothing is comfort- 
ably loose. Tight clothing arrests the circulation of the blood, caus- 




ENGAGED TO BE MARRIED. 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 



107 



ing headaches, backaches, imperfect vision, cold feet, benumbing 
sensations of the extremities, and a dozen other ailments and all man- 
ner of discomforts. Shoes may be so small and laced so tightly as to 
cause varicose veins, while perhaps the larger proportion of people who 
wear shoes, suffer from bunions or corns. 

The high, tight collars so universally worn the past few years are 
responsible for goiters and much of the throat trouble experienced by 
our fashionable young women. Others suffer from heart difficulty as 




The fibs of large curve; the lungs large 
findroomy; the liver, stomach and bow- 
01s in their normal position; all -with 
Abundant room. 



The ribs bent almost to angles ; the 
lungs contracted; the liver, stomach and 
Intestines forc'ed down into the pelvis, 
crowding the womb seriously. 



Nature versus Corsets , Illustrated,. 

the result of the tight corset. In some instances the heart has been 
displaced and the lungs so compressed that years have been spent in 
misery as a consequence, and death came as a welcome relief. The 
womb also and neighboring organs have been so gorged with blood 
and their nerves made so sensitive, that the suffering during the 
menstrual period has been excruciating. But not until this organ 
yields its perfect fruit is the full extent of these evils recognized. 

The body is as much a desirable part of the human being as is the 
mind. True, it is not ourselves, but it is our home, the house in which 
we live. Impair our dwelling-place and the life within partakes of 

8 



108 SOCIAL PURITY. 

the injury. Keep the dwelling clean and pure, every part equal to 
its own work, every avenue unobstructed, and the inhabitant will be 
in better condition because of the healthful house in which he lives. 
This house was made for use, but a useful house may also be a beauti- 
ful one. A perfect organism and health mean beauty. Health, 
beauty and worth constitute the main attraction between the sexes, 
and is the very life of social union. 

As remarked before, the body is made up of parts; each part con- 
tributes a separate economy depending on the whole, and the whole 
is sustained by the perfect combination of its parts. Let any of the 
parts be disarranged or made incapable of performing its work and 
the whole body necessarily is affected. One organ should not be 
developed at the expense of another. Neither should the mind be 
developed at the expense of the body. An active mind will retain its 
activity better in a well-kept body than in an ill-kept one. The mind 
and body should be in proportionate harmony of development. The 
old notion that a weak physical organization indicates a spiritual- 
minded individual, or that stooping shoulders is the sign of a scholar, 
has gone by. Many of the present day intellectual giants show a 
muscular arm and a handsome physique. Scholarly athletes, not 
book-worms, is what the world is looking for now. 

While the building up of the character and the development of 
the mind is going on, the body should be given an equal chance. 
Such attention should be given it that its vitality should be sustained 
and nourished by a proper course of diet, exercise and rest, and every- 
thing calculated to impair the mental and physical organism should 
be abandoned. 

Rest and Work the Law of Life. Work and rest, rest and work, 
is the law of life instituted by the Creator. They go hand in hand, 
each dependent on the other. Take no rest, soon you will take no 
work. Do no work, and shortly you will do no resting. Rest does 
not necessarily mean sleep or idleness, but often only a change of 
work or a change of position. A man who works all day at an office 
desk may rest by hoeing in the garden at evening; a woman standing 
all forenoon at the ironing-table may rest while she sits to peel the 
potatoes or prepare the vegetables for dinner. 

Rest is obtained by changing work from one set of muscles to that 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 109 

of another. The mind may rest while the muscles of the body are 
busy, and while the body rests, the mind may be actively engaged. 
But do not get the idea that absolute rest of mind and body is sinful. 
How often have we heard a busy mother say at dusk, "Well, I 
ought not to sit here with my hands folded when I have so much to 
do," and she said it as if she really feared she was doing something 
wicked. 

Even our school-girls, bent on improving their minds, carry an 
instructive book on boat or car, or our shop-girls a piece of needle- 
work or crocheting, imagining that these are necessarily virtues. 
There are as useful lessons in the panorama of wood and field and hill 
as any found on the printed page. There are little dramas of human- 
ity enacted on the cars worth more than embroidery and Battenberg. 
We need not reproach ourselves because we sit with folded hands to 
enjoy a beautiful sunset or a quiet moonlit evening. Rest is not waste. 
Time is not stolen when we stop to enjoy the beauties of nature that 
the Heavenly Father has spread all about us. Let us be careful that 
in our rush after the accomplishments we do not trample underfoot 
things more desirable. 

Some one has said that "Americans know how to do everything 
better than they know how to rest." We need resting times for our 
own best growth and activity. We need recreation too. 

Vegetation needs rest. Winter is its resting-time. God realized 
rest was needed, so he gave us night. He himself rested when the 
work of creation was done. 

The Gospel of Rest. The gospel of rest for young women is not 
preached half forcefully enough. They are urged forward at a rapid 
rate in the school-room by both teachers and parents, and when grad- 
uated, the ambitious young woman desires to do her duty acceptably 
on the various committees of Christian Endeavor and Sunday-school. 
Perhaps she joins a reading circle, or study club, or a musical union 
for further improvement, or she may be foolish enough to undertake 
them all in addition to her home duties, or possibly the requirements 
of a paid employment where she is occupied from seven in the morning 
till six at night. Is it any wonder she breaks down before middle life? 
Nervous prostration is becoming too familiar a trouble. In a recent 
club meeting a member read a paper on the "Value of System in 



110 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Work, ' ' and gave a model day in which every minute from getting out 
of bed to getting in again was rilled with active effort. When she 
closed, a woman rose and pointed out that one important occupation 
of the day had been omitted from the carefully prepared essay. This 
was "dawdling," the speaker's term for resting. She said that while 
she indorsed the value of the system, she felt that she must plead for 
the incorporation in the working day of every woman of at least a 
half hour's absolute rest — not the rest of a fresh occupation, but the 
rest of complete and entire relaxation, mental and physical. 

Worry — Strive Against It. Our young woman should strive 
against the habit of worry, for with many it is an acquired affliction. 
We meet few people who do not bear on their faces the lines of care 
and worry. We even find them upon the faces of the young, where 
of all places they ought not to be. Even our young women rush 
through the hours of the day with feverish speed, and bring a hot 
brain and tumultuous pulse home at night to a restless, unrefreshing 
sleep. 

Worry ages one. It is a waste of vital force. It is a habit that 
may be conquered by watchfulness, resolution and good, hard com- 
mon sense. It is too costly a habit to indulge in. It really impedes 
progress instead of hastening work. A worried woman never does 
her work so well as if free from feverish hurry. She is apt to forget, 
to make mistakes, she can not think so clearly, her mind becomes con- 
fused, and she finds that she can not depend on her own judgment and 
decisions. Her many hurried plans are apt to be failures. She finds 
— if she stops to consider — that usually she has "too many irons in 
the fire." It were better to be content with fewer irons. A writer 
says: 

"All good in life costs. Virtue goes out of us in everything we do 
that is worth doing. Every exertion requires some outflow of vital 
force. But for normal, healthy action, nature provides. There is 
recuperative energy enough to supply the waste. The foundations 
are filled as fast as they are drained. The fiber is renewed as fast 
as it is worn away. Worry, however, is abnormal and unhealthy. It 
exhausts vitality more rapidly than nature can reinforce it. It is like 
friction in machinery and grinds away the very fiber of the life. 
Worry, therefore, both impedes progress and makes work costly and 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. Ill 

exhaustive. One neither accomplishes so much nor does it so well, 
while the outlay of vitality is greater. The ideal theory of life is, 
therefore, work without worry. ' ' 

From the pen of Ada C. Sweet we take the following: 
"Worry kills. It wears upon the brain as dropping water wears 
away stone. The habit must be killed by eternal vigilance, resolution 
and good sense. Worry, like bad air or an obnoxious person, must be 
driven out, and the best way to drive either out is by the introduction 
of the good. You can fill your mind with comforting, calming 
thoughts, leaving no room for the harassing ones. You can flood out 
the enemy, just as by pouring a stream of clear water into a tumbler 
filled with discolored liquid you can soon force out the muddy con- 
tents of the glass and leave it filled with liquid crystal. Don't let 
events depress you. Maintain your equilibrium and let mind rule 
matter and good sense judge events. The emotional nature is always 
watching for a chance to exploit itself. Keep it in reserve, ready for 
every touch of human feeling, responsive to goodness, honor, cheer- 
fulness and all healthy feeling, but do not allow it to tinge your 
understanding or in any way affect your sane view of business or the 
affairs of life. Check expression when bitter or somber feeling has 
the best of you. To say how sad or perplexed you feel when your 
heart sinks for the moment deepens your inward troubles and at the 
same time spreads it to outside people. You would not spread dis- 
ease; do not spread mental distress. Your desponding words, burst- 
ing impulsively from a full heart in the presence of a friend, add to 
the burdens of another human being — one, perhaps, already weighed 
down by cares and anxieties. To so speak is to allow yourself to be 
overborne by 'things' ruled by the natural course of the world. You 
can not rule the world, it is true, but you have the power to rule your 
part of it — that is, yourself. Don't hate and don't worry. This is 
the advice given by a hale and beneficent old man to those who asked 
him for the secret of length of days. He might have added, Don't 
get angry." 

Anger Shortens Life. Bancroft, the historian, who was vigorous 
and amiable at the age of ninety, said: "The secret of a long life is in 
never losing one's temper." We will die soon enough without the 
assistance of anger. 



112 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Some one has said: "A storm of passion will disorder one's nervous 
system about as soon as a thunderstorm the wires of a telegraphic 
line. A few such storms will destroy it altogether. ' ' 

Another writer states it thus: 

"Hitherto we have regarded fretfulness, melancholy and bad temper 
as the natural concomitants of illness. But modern science shows 
that these mental moods have actual power to produce disease. No 
doubt in most cases imperfect bodily conditions are the cause of 
irritable and depressed feelings, yet sometimes the reverse is true, and 
a better knowledge of physiological laws would show them to be effect 
rather than cause. The fact that discontented and gloomy people are 
never in good health is an argument in favor of the theory that con- 
tinual indulgence in unhappy thoughts acts as a poison and creates 
some form of disease. Moreover, such people radiate an unwhole- 
some influence, which, like the atmosphere of a malarial region, one 
can not help inhaling. They also lack hope and energy and are far 
more likely to succumb to prevailing epidemics than those of a cheer- 
ful temperament. A variety of motives, therefore — our personal well- 
being, regard for the dear ones of our households and loyalty to the 
divine Master, who forbids our taking anxious thought — should inspire 
us to cultivate a sunny disposition." 

Let love reign in the heart and the demon of anger will find no 
place. Make all you possibly can, do all you possibly can without 
worry. Be as beautiful, as wise, as cultured as circumstances will 
allow, and use these faculties and gifts for the pleasure and happiness 
of yourself and those about you. We are enjoined by a happy writer 
to use 

Laughter as the Best Medicine. "For every good, hearty laugh 
we indulge in there is a day taken off our age. Why should we take 
life so seriously? Can not we labor as well or better, accomplish as 
much and enjoy life as we go along, if we keep on the watch for every 
possible opportunity for a good, hearty, blood-stirring, pulse-tingling 
laugh? Let us try it for a year. Let us put away all those wrinkle- 
producing, skin-withering, blood-drying, heart-narrowing feelings of 
envy, spite, jealousy and secret hatred — those petty, penny-grasping, 
soul-contorting, narrow-minded ambitions and desires — and make up 
our minds to live to enjoy living as long as we do live and to live as 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 113 

long as we can. Joy is the sunshine of the heart; cheerfulness and 
honest mirth bring forth the blossoms and unfold the leaves, while 
their fragrance sweetens all our lives and the lives of others. Let us 
not worry. Worry drains the system of its vitality and shortens our 
lives. 

"A good hearty laugh is a medicine which druggists do not keep. 
You can nearly always find it in peaceful, happy Christian homes. 
True religion does not create long faces." 

If a girl is naturally of a nervous disposition she should be careful 
how she spends her energy. Let it not be wasted in fretting about 
the things she can not help. 

Helen Hunt Jackson wrote thus of the sin of fretting : 4 ' There is one 
sin which, it seems to me, is everywhere and by everybody underesti- 
mated and quite too much overlooked in valuation of character. It is the 
sin of fretting. It is as common as air, as speech — so common that, 
unless it rises above its usual monotone, we do not even observe it. 
Watch any ordinary coming together of people and see how many min- 
utes it will be before somebody frets — that is, makes more or less com- 
plaining statement of something or other, which probably every one in 
the room or in the car or on the street corner, it may be, knew before 
and probably nobody can help. Why say anything about it? It is cold, 
it is hot, it is wet, it is dry, somebody has broken an appointment, ill 
cooked a meal; stupidity or bad faith somewhere has resulted in dis- 
comfort. There are plenty of things to fret about. It is simply astonish- 
ing how much annoyance may be found in the course of every day's 
living, even of the simplest, if one keeps a sharp eye on that side of 
things." This is certainly true; and it is no less certain that a cheer- 
ful disposition may be cultivated in the same way that the voice 
may be trained in harmony or the mind in various learning. 

The New York World in a truthfully humorous way tells of 

The Pace that Kills. "The pace which kills a business woman is 
the work she does at home. 

"Good, hard, faithful attention to business never killed any one, 
man or woman. Worry and the 'seeing to things' idea — these are the 
two nails in the business woman's coffin. 

"The 'seeing to things' idea is distinctly feminine. No man ever 
had it. Every woman is born with it. 



114 SOCIAL PURITY. 

"Men sit in a street-car and watch the driver of a truck groan and 
tug and try to get his wheels off the track and not a man will move to 
help that driver or even sigh in sympathy. Every woman in the car 
is edging and peering and wishing she dared go out on the platform 
and 'see to that truck.' 

"That's the thing which kills women. 

"They try to carry the world on their shoulders, and they do not 
realize that the world is a great deal better off without their puny 
strength under it. 

"Business women try to do too many kinds of things. They are, 
most of them, 'Jills of all trades.' When a business man gets up in 
the morning he takes his bath, goes into the dining-room and eats his 
breakfast, kisses his family good-by, and goes downtown to work, 
like a sensible man. The business woman — do you know her? I do. 

"I will tell you what the business woman does. She gets up early 
and goes into the children's room and fusses around for half an hour or 
so. If you ask her what she is doing she'll say she is 'seeing to things. ' 

"She hires a servant — and waits upon her. 

"She pays a dressmaker — and sits up nights studying fashion books 
for a new way to have a dress made. 

"She buys a hat — and takes it home and tears it all to pieces and 
makes it over again. She dictates to a typewriter — and then takes 
the 'copy' and corrects it herself. She works herself ill over some- 
thing that she can't do and ought not to do, and takes a rueful pleas- 
ure in a martyred spell of illness. 

"She worries about other people's troubles, she frets over other 
people's children, she almost takes medicine for other people's head- 
aches, and she puts all her friends into nervous irritation trying to 
'see to them.' 

"If the business woman is worth one-half her salary, she puts all 
these things out of her mind at the office. ' ' 

Most of us find that if we exist, we must work; if we work, we 
must rest; if we rest, we should seek the best rest, which is found in 
sleep. 

Sleep is the Great Restorative, the blest physician to mankind. 
Troubled brain, wearied nerve, overstrained muscle, all are invigorated 
by quiet, healthful sleep. 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 115 

We have seen that all activity is accompanied by destruction of 
bodily tissue. While we think, play, work or whatever else we do, 
we are expending force. Every thought of the brain, every utterance 
of the voice, every motion of the hand, every movement of the body, 
every emotion of the heart, every passion brought into play is at the 
expense of bodily tissue. 

All work of the body, all activity of the mind and nerves implies 
waste of the cell-substance of which the body is composed. 

This waste matter must be removed and carried out of the system, 
and, in turn, must be replaced by new cells, which are built up from 
the animal and vegetable cell-substances which we eat as food. This 
exchange takes place best when we rest and sleep. No organ of the 
body can long endure work without rest, or an opportunity for replac- 
ing the worn-out cells with new tissue. When we rest, particularly 
when we rest by sleeping, the vital forces quietly carry off the broken 
and worn-out tissues, which are replaced by new material. In some 
persons this process of rebuilding, called assimilation, is carried on 
more rapidly than in others. The lost energy of some may be restored 
in five or six hours, while others whose vital forces work slowly and 
feebly require eight or even nine hours to complete the renewal of 
expended energy. Napoleon is said to have required but four or five 
hours' sleep, and these he could take on horseback. 

If after sleeping seven or eight hours, a person feels rested and 
vigorous and as if he would like to begin work at once, he has prob- 
ably had enough sleep; but if still sleepy, tired and dull, the proba- 
bility is that not enough time has been taken for the work of restora- 
tion. Children and feeble people require more sleep than healthful 
adults. The length of time to be given to this form of rest varies 
with age. Infants require at least sixteen hours out of twenty-four; 
children four or five years old ought to sleep about twelve hours, and 
from ten to fifteen, about ten hours. After twenty-one the time given 
to sleep should be about eight hours. In some cases nine hours is 
better. However, no one person is a guide for another in the matter 
of sleep. Each must judge for himself. The most beneficial sleep is 
that taken before midnight; it is said by writers of old to be the 
4 'beauty sleep.' * Many people lie abed long enough, but are unable 
for some cause to obtain sleep enough to waken refeshed. 



116 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Those whose occupations necessitate a somewhat irregular resting 
time, should endeavor to make up for lost sleep, otherwise Nature 
will have her revenge on an overtaxed brain. Sometimes loss of 
sleep disables one from going to sleep readily when he has the 
opportunity. Many times children and young people are so excited 
by play or absorbed in their studies that perhaps hours are required 
to subdue excitement and calm the nerves preparatory to health-giving 
sleep. A child called from an exciting game to go to bed, leaves his 
play with reluctance and perhaps with ill-concealed anger; he is not 
in a fit condition for sleep till in a better frame of mind. An elder 
sister may act the part of the mother and quiet him by a restful story 
or a soothing hymn into peaceful slumber. 

No one is more benefited than the elder sister herself by the quiet- 
ing influence of the slumber song. Perhaps she is unable to sleep 
when she retires because of overanxiety, planning for to-morrow, or 
thinking over the mistakes of yesterday, or the worries of to-day. 
Perfect quietude in a restful position is a good preparation for sleep. 
If from mental overwork she is unable to sleep, the brain should be 
relieved of the excess of blood. 

This may be done by some light form of physical exercise, as to 
stand erect and rise slowly from the heels, then descend slowly. Con- 
tinue this exercise for three or four minutes, when relief will follow 
and sleep is induced. Or a drink of hot milk may be taken, which will 
increase the activity of the blood vessels of the stomach and relieve 
those of the brain. *mimw 

If the muscles be overstrained, the restful position, the soothing 
lullaby, the pleasant imaginings of the brain, the bright pictures which 
the fancy paints are all conducive to sleep. Sleep we must have. 
The cry for rest and sleep is as loud as the cry for food and water, 
and for some it is as hard to get. Sleep will do much to cure an 
unpleasant temper, peevishness, sorrow and general unhappiness. It 
will build up and make strong a weak body, it will restore vigor to an 
overworked brain, it will cure a headache, strengthen weak eyes and 
lengthen life. 

Mid-day Nap. The great philanthropist, Dr. D. K. Pearsons, wants 
to live to be one hundred years old. Arrived at the four-score mark, 
this venerable man wishes to compass a century in his life and then 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 117 

live a while longer, if possible. He thinks the way to accomplish this 
end is not to search for the fountain of life in Florida, but to take a 
nap after dinner. This he does regularly, and, because of the habit, 
he declined to serve upon the reception committee for the Dewey day 
celebration. Here is the letter which was received at the committee's 
headquarters explaining Dr. Pearsons' views on the matter: 

I am eighty years old and I sleep after dinner. One day in the 
Dewey celebration might make me sick ten days. If I were younger 
I would go in for a jolly day. I thank you for the invitation. Yours, 

D. K. Pearsons. 
P. S. — Old men must be kept quiet; I want to live to be one hundred 
years old. 

Young women, and particularly young housekeepers, are helped 
over a weary day by the mid-day nap. Only a few minutes are 
required to relax the system. One lady of my acquaintance gets the 
twelve-o'clock dinner all ready to dish up, then she lies down on the 
lounge for a five-minute nap while the men wash, and another person 
dishes up the food and places it on the table. This is her life-preserver, 
her wrinkle-eraser. 

Sleeping Rooms. As about one-third of our life is spent in sleep, 
perhaps it would be well to inquire into the condition of our sleeping 
apartments. 

The first requisite to healthful sleep is a well-ventilated room, and 
the second a clean bed. 

The room should be as large as one can afford. If possible the 
floor should be of hardwood and bare, with rugs of such size that they 
may easily be taken outdoors for cleaning and airing. Everything 
about the room should be washable. Use no heavy, dust-gathering 
draperies about the bed or windows. Nor should the room be filled 
with upholstered chairs and couches. If possible have the bedroom for 
the purpose of rest and sleep alone, instead of using it as a sewing or 
sitting-room during the day. 

Ventilation. If there is no direct draft into the chimney, perhaps 
the best substitute for changing the air is to have the windows so 
arranged that they may be opened at the top and bottom. If the 
sleeper is in delicate health, the windows of an adjoining room may 
be opened instead, so that she may not be so directly affected should a 



118 SOCIAL PURITY. 

marked change of atmosphere occur during the night. Do not be 
afraid of the night air. As there is no provision in the economy of 
nature whereby we may stop breathing during the night, we shall be 
obliged to breathe night air. And it seems that a pure quality of that 
article would be more acceptable to a cleanly person than day air 
enclosed in a heated room and breathed over four or five times during 
a single night. The same air should not be breathed twice any more 
than the same water should be drunk twice. If water and food are a 
necessity to health, so also are pure air and sunshine. 

Harriet Benton, in the Youth's Companion^ gives directions for air- 
ing a bedroom by means of a wind-curtain, which we quote in full: 

Wind- Curtain. "To get plenty of air into a sleeping-room at 
night without the cold or damp wind blowing directly upon the bed is 
necessary alike for comfort and health. 

"The familiar device of a board fitted to set tightly into the win- 
dow frame underneath the raised lower sash answers for extremely 
cold nights; but it does not give enough air in moderate weather. On 
the other hand, if a severe wind is blowing upon the opened window, 
although the temperature may not be very low, the strong current is 
too trying for most sleepers. 

"To those who wish to enjoy the open window at night, and yet to 
be defended against a direct current of air, the wind-curtain will be 
valuable. 

"About a foot above the window-stool, on both edges of the cas- 
ings, insert diagonally a pair of two-inch screw hooks. Being on the 
outside edges of the casings, they do not mar the wood, and are 
unnoticed during the day. Prepare a light curtain-pole, say an inch 
in diameter, and insert screw-eyes to correspond with the hooks. 
This pole may be a regular curtain-pole with brass knobs, or a bamboo 
pole, or a humble broomstick — painted, however, we will hope. 

"Hang upon this pole, either by rings, or by a broad hem through 
which the pole is thrust, a short curtain of burlap. This coarse cloth 
is suggested because of its very openness; while breaking the force of 
the wind, it admits much of it in a gentle way. This may be trimmed 
tastily with a half-inch hempen rope, or with cat-stitching. 

"To prevent the curtain from flapping in the wind, sew to it a pair 
of small rings, which can be loosely attached to another pair of small 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 119 

hooks screwed on the under side of the window-stool at its extrem- 
ities. 

"The chief admission of air will not be through the interstices of 
the coarse burlap, but above and around it, from the three or four-inch 
space between it and the sash. A shawl or an afghan may be thrown 
over the pole instead of a regularly hung curtain, and will answer the 
purpose equally well. In the morning the pole is lifted from its 
inconspicuous hooks, and stored away in the closet out of sight. 

"If it is preferred to have the window opened at the top, the same 
contrivance may be used — the window-shade being run up out of the 
way, and thus preserved from flapping or from damage by rain." 

If one rise with the headache, or mental dulness, or physical 
languor, it is fair to assume that she has been breathing foul air that 
has done service several times, or that there have been impurities in 
the room from soiled clothing, or that the chamber vessels have not 
been properly cleansed and aired. 

Single Beds. More single beds would mean greater health in a large 
number of cases. A healthy person should not sleep with a diseased 
one, nor an aged person with a child. They are cases of the blind 
leading the blind ; both may fall in the same ditch. Disease is the result 
of poison within the body, which nature seeks to throw off by means of 
the lungs, the pores of the skin, and the discharges from the kidneys 
and the bowels. If two occupy the same bed, one in health and one 
diseased, the healthful one will absorb much of the waste and impure 
matter thrown off by the one diseased, as is often seen in cases of 
healthful people who sleep with consumptives. 

Care for Bedrooms. More care should be given to our beds and 
bedrooms than to any other furniture or room of the house. Badly 
ventilated sleeping-rooms are hotbeds of disease. They not only 
engender disease, but feed and keep them alive. In close, pent-up 
bedrooms the carbonic acid gas, a deadly poison thrown off by the 
lungs, can not escape, but remains to be breathed over and over again; 
the perspiration of the body amounting to two or three pounds in 
twenty-four hours also stays in the room to become foetid and sicken- 
ing, and it is no wonder that the sleeper rises unrested and goes wear- 
ily upon her round of duties. Were it not for the smell of such 
rooms, many would go unaired. 



120 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Fumigation. Many seek to remedy the matter by fumigating. 
Dr. Abernathy, in lecturing to a class of medical students, said: 
"Fumigations, gentlemen, are of essential importance; they are so 
abominable a stink that they compel you to open the windows and 
admit fresh air." To destroy the smell is not to destroy the danger. 
To remove the danger is to remove the cause of danger. When asleep, 
the body has the least power to resist the evils of an impure atmos- 
phere; therefore, anything that will absorb and retain the exhalations 
of the body should be discarded from the sleeping-room. 

Clothing Aired. Of course, our young lady will remove at night 
every article of clothing which she has worn during the day, and hang 
it where it may be thoroughly aired if it must be worn the next day. 

Breathing Exercise. Upon rising in the morning, let our young 
lady throw open her window, and while yet in her night-dress, slowly 
inflate her lungs to their full extent, then as slowly expel the air. A 
five-minute exercise of this kind taken morning and evening will 
expand the lungs and thus beautify the form; it will also clear the 
complexion, strengthen the voice and increase the general health of 
the body. 

The Bath. The morning bath is also a help to health if not too 
prolonged. A simple sponge bath, followed by vigorous rubbing, is 
all that is necessary to health. For cleansing, a more thorough bath 
is desirable. If in delicate health, the cold bath should be avoided, 
especially during the menstrual period. Indeed, at such a time it may 
be positively dangerous. At such times a local warm bath should be 
substituted, which is both cleansing and soothing. Few girls can stand 
an absolutely cold bath, and even though our girl may be strong 
enough, she should not indulge in it, unless she follow the bath with a 
vigorous rubbing. 

Virtues of Salt-water Baths: "For a hand bath (a bath given to 
the body by use of the hands only, or by sponge or cloth) place a 
handful of salt in a basin as ordinarily filled for washing. Allow the 
salt to dissolve, or hasten the action by stirring it with the hand. The 
water should be as cold as you have vitality to withstand. Use no 
soap. Bathe the entire body. Do not neglect the face and the neck 
in the free use of the salt water. This bath has an exhilarating 
influence, tones the entire system, and gives to the skin a healthful 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 121 

condition that amply repays for the time and trouble involved. If 
used in the winter it will be an excellent preventive of colds, besides 
being a substitute for face cosmetics. No chapping, no roughness of 
the skin and no clogging of the pores will trouble the person who sys- 
tematically and regularly takes a bath of this sort. Ordinary table 
salt or rock salt will do, but will not do so well. The sea salt con- 
tains medicinal properties not found in the others. Whether one 
exercises or not, the body should receive a daily hand bath of cold or 
cool water, especially in the summer, either upon rising or before 
retiring. . . . 

"A bath should never be taken within two hours after a hearty 
meal. The first effect of immersion in warm or cold water is to seri- 
ously derange the digestive process, if this is progressing at the time, 
and by a physiological effect that naturally follows, to unbalance or 
derange the whole nervous system. The result of this is extremely 
dangerous to the bather. There are numerous instances of severe ill- 
ness, and even of death, caused by bathing while the stomach was 
full. ' ' — Edwaj'd B. Warman. 

The Complexion. Mrs. Humphry, in the same periodical, guaran- 
tees any girl a good complexion who will wash her face every night 
and morning, and twice a day besides, according to her directions: 
"The water must not be quite cold in winter, and soap should be used 
but once a day. The fingers are better than any sponge or glove or 
flannel, and they should be used as the masseuse uses hers, pressing 
them firmly but gently into the skin and passing them two or three 
times over every inch of the face. More particular pains should be 
devoted to the corners, where dust is always liable to lodge, around 
the eyes, nose and mouth. If a wash-cloth is used it should be of the 
softest and finest, and plenty of water should be applied after the soap 
so as to wash it all away. The drying process should be equally thor- 
ough and effectual, a hurried rub opening the way to all sorts of 
roughnesses and chappings. Not one girl in twenty knows how to 
wash her face, and that is the reason why massage flourishes. It 
thoroughly cleanses. ' ' 

The face should be washed regularly before going to bed, to remove 
the dust and possible germs that may have accumulated during the 
day Use pure olive oil soap, warm water and a Turkish toweling 



122 SOCIAL PURITY. 

wash-cloth. Rub the skin briskly, rinse with soapless water, dry and 
massage two or three minutes with cold cream that is absolutely pure. 
Women with sensitive skins should never wash the face just before 
going out into the sun, as it renders the skin more liable to tan and 
sunburn. 

When going on a journey do not take cologne with which to bathe 
your face. Never use any preparation containing alcohol, for it will 
soon give the skin that old, parchmentf-like appearance. It kills the 
outer skin and stimulates the inner skin, which makes a bad combina- 
tion. Neither is it wise to use witch-hazel too frequently, for it 
coarsens the skin. Benzoin is good, and with the wash of Epsom 
salts will keep your face clean without hurting it. Never use any but 
volatile oils. Try a little on a sheet of white paper. If it all evap- 
orates it is fit to use on the face. The animal oils will not evapo- 
rate. 

When troubled with pimples try rubbing on a little of the flour of 
sulphur before going to bed. If they are very bad, apply a paste made 
of the sulphur and oil of sweet almonds and at once look to the cause. 
Pimples are usually caused by trouble either with the liver, the kid- 
neys or the stomach, and if taken in time a short course of some 
simple home remedy will be found sufficient. If the person is inclined 
to be stout, her pimples may usually be cured by reducing her allow- 
ance of food one-half and avoiding all that is starchy. 

The condition of the skin depends almost entirely upon the care 
given to the general health. The girl who is up late at night, gives no 
care to her diet, indulges in various stimulants, bathes but seldom, 
and exercises less, is certain to have either a dull, muddy-looking skin, 
or one covered with disagreeable-looking black and red spots. One 
should avoid many sweets and much pastry, and not allow herself to 
become a slave either to tea or coffee any more than she would to some 
vicious drug or strong stimulant. She should also remember that, 
unless she is in good condition internally, she will be anything but a 
pleasant object to look upon externally. 

Finally, if you want a nice complexion you must take plenty of 
sleep in a well-ventilated room, stop worrying, bathe frequently and 
perspire a little every day. No lotion is better than perspiration, but 
it must not be allowed to dry on the skin. 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 123 

The Teeth. The teeth are to be kept sound and gleaming by 
wholesome food, well masticated, and by thorough brushing, inside 
and out, up and down, with a moderately stiff brush, after each meal. 

Once a day a tooth powder, authorized by dentists, and not merely 
a patented preparation, should be used, but not more frequently, as 
nothing is better than simple warm water, and the mouth should be 
thoroughly rinsed. 

Dyspeptics and other invalids, too, are apt to have unpleasant 
teeth, but this is usually due to willful neglect of the stomach and 
enforced neglect of the mouth when weakness has followed indigestion. 

All persons, old and young, should have their teeth examined once 
every six months by a competent dentist. Decay will be present and 
tartar forming, which nothing but a thorough examination will reveal. 
Professional service rendered in time means high-class work, less pain 
and great economy. A tooth filled when decay is slight will not be 
sensitive, the operation not long and the filling lasting, because the 
operator has more and better structure to work on. He is enabled to 
make the walls of the cavity thicker and stronger and with slight 
danger of exposing the nerve, the dread and fear of all when having 
teeth rilled. Have your teeth attended to in time. Do not procras- 
tinate. Only a few persons have good teeth; ninety-nine persons in a 
hundred could have good teeth with the proper attention. 

The Eyes. Few people are aware what an excellent tonic a cold- 
water bath is for the eyes; not the ordinary sponge bath, with closed 
lids, but opening the eyes and holding them open for a minute or more 
in clear cold water. To do this take a teacupful of water, and hold it 
to the eye, against the face, and open the eye in it. Open and shut 
two or three times to wash out the eye. Then dry with a soft towel. 
Never rub your eyes; it is an exceedingly injurious practice, and children 
should be warned against it. If your eyes are weak, put a pinch of 
salt in the water. 

On arising in the morning the eyes should be bathed gently in cold 
water. While using them closely they should be rested at intervals of 
an hour or two, for the strain of constant reading or sewing is like that 
of extending the arms at a certain height immovable. Imagine, then, 
the taxing of the eyes, which can not complain save after years of 
irreparable neglect. When dust settles in the eyes warm water will 

9 



124 SOCIAL PURITY. 

soothe them of any inflammation ; rose-water is extremely refreshing, 
bat it should be bought in small quantities, as it keeps but a short 
time. Five cents' worth will give a daily eye bath for several weeks. 
Tea leaves and alum water were the eye tonics which our grand- 
fathers used; but in these modern days of absolutely hygienic and anti- 
septic simplicity, water, especially in a distilled form, is considered 
powerful enough. 

Care of the Hands. There are few minor things more unpleas- 
ant, either for the sufferer or for the casual observer, than ill-kept, 
red and roughened hands. Skin that easily chaps requires oil; and so 
do nails that split and crack. The best sort 'of soap for such skin is 
that which contains the most oil; the best sort of treatment for such 
nails is to rub them well with a cold cream mixture after washing them 
at night. Very hot water is bad for the skin, and so is cold water 
when used constantly when washing the hands. It is also a poor 
policy to surprise your hands by putting^them from hot water into 
cold water, or from cold water into the hot element. A little pow- 
dered borax added to the water will soften it and have a beneficial 
effect. Indian meal is a simple but good addition to the toilet table, 
and should be used as a preventive and as a cure for chapped hands. 
Use a fine soap and tepid water in washing the hands, and before 
rinsing off the soap rub the hands well with the meal, rinse them with 
tepid water, using a little meal each time except the last. Dry the 
skin thoroughly and then rinse it again in a little water containing a 
teaspoonful of pure glycerine. The word pure is important in that 
connection, since impure glycerine is anything but healing. Pure 
glycerine rubbed on the hands is perfectly lacking in odor. Glycerine, 
by the way, should never be applied to the skin undiluted. It has a 
strong affinity for water, and will absorb all moisture from the surface 
which it touches unless it has first been mixed- with an equal bulk of 
water. Rose-water, lemon juice and glycerine make a first-rate com- 
bination for softening and preserving the skin. 

It has recently been claimed that cases of infection that could be 
accounted for in no other way have been explained by the fingers as 
a vehicle. In handling money, especially of paper, door knobs, 
banisters, car straps and a hundred things that every one must fre- 
quently touch, there are chances innumerable of picking up germs of 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 125 

typhoid, scarlatina, diphtheria, smallpox, etc. Yet some persons 
actually put such things, if not too large, in their mouths. Before 
eating, or touching that which is to be eaten, the hand should be 
immediately and scrupulously washed. We hear much about general 
cleanliness as 'next to godliness.' It may be added that here in 
particular it is also ahead of health and safety. The Jews made no 
mistake in that 'except they washed they ate not.' It is a sanitary 
ordinance as well as an ordinance of decency. 

Care of the Hair. The care of a girl's hair during her childhood 
has much to do with its later beauty. 

The following general rules for the care of the hair should be relig- 
iously followed by all who value a healthy scalp and luxuriant tresses: 

1. Brush the hair from four to five minutes, night and morning, 
with a moderately hard brush, taking care, however, not to irritate 
the scalp. The brush should be washed at least once a week. This 
is one of the best means of keeping the skin of the head perfectly 
clean. 

2. Wash the head once a month in water softened with a few 
drops of ammonia, and use the yolk of an egg, well beaten up, with a 
little warm water, instead of soap. 

When the hair shows a tendency to fall out, the very best thing 
to stop its coming out and promote its growth is the abundant use of 
genuine olive oil. Saturate the hair thoroughly, and keep it saturated 
for a week, until the dry scalp has absorbed all it will, then wash with 
pure soap and water. If this operation is repeated every two or three 
months, the effect is said to be marvelous. 

Personal Appearance. It is no uncommon thing for a pretty, 
stylish girl to lose interest in her personal appearance after marriage. 
Often she is blamed, the while she should be pitied; censured when 
she should be encouraged to a better state of things. Before she 
became mistress of a home of her own she did not lack for time to 
perform these little personal offices that go such a long way toward 
forming the charming, well-dressed women that are attractive to all 
with whom they come in contact. 

She has no intention of neglecting her toilet, but little by little 
her duties increase as time goes on, encroaching upon the time she 
has hitherto devoted to herself, until before she is aware a hasty 



126 SOCIAL PURITY. 

brushing of the hair is the only office allowed beyond donning the 
day's raiment. The heavy, ceaseless round of work monopolizes 
every moment of the day, and when the hour for retirement comes 
she sinks wearily into bed without having given her body the care and 
attention that even her self-respect demands. A day or two of this 
neglect may have no perceptible effect upon her personal appearance 
or character, but as constant dropping of water wears away the hard- 
est stone, so prolonged daily neglect of self roughens and vulgarizes the 
character. 

It seems to me that the whole matter hinges more upon the 
personal inclination than upon the surroundings. True, when we are 
obliged to work to the limit of our strength from early morning until 
bedtime we feel too tired to care much for personal appearance, but 
could we but once view our counterpart in another woman we would 
register a solemn vow to neglect work rather than ourselves. 

The finest compliment we ever heard paid to a woman was by 
her husband; he said in speaking of her: 'We always think of her 
as a morning-glory, because she looks so bright and cheery and pretty 
at the breakfast table. ' 

How many breakfast tables are presided over by women who 
make no effort to be dainty I The claim that household duties keep 
women from looking well in the morning is easily disproved, for in 
many a household where the lady gives a helping hand in the kitchen, 
a big apron will thoroughly protect her dress, and then, too, cooking, 
unless one makes it so, is never dirty work. That woman commits 
an error who looks uncared-for and badly dressed in the morning. The 
other woman who wears any old thing to the breakfast table is also 
making a mistake, for that is the time when the men of the household 
ought to see a woman at her best and not specially rely on her appear- 
ance in the evening, when the soft and charitable light of the gas will 
hide many defects. 

We want all our girls to be veritable morning-glories when they 
are transplanted to the new home where they are to please and bless 
by the odor of their presence. 

Habits and Occupation. A young woman's habits of life have 
much to do with her health. Regular and punctual sleeping hours, 
with hygienic habits of eating and drinking, healthful exercise and 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 127 

occupation, with few social dissipations would give a young woman a 
good start on the road to permanent health. 

But too often ambition to excel in study, to shine in society, to 
overstep some one of stronger physique in achievements, has been the 
means of undermining the constitution of many a bright girl, and she 
has thus become unfit, physically, to assume the duties of wifehood 
and motherhood. 

Let us look for a moment into her history. From the age of six 
to eighteen years she has been a devotee of the school-room. She, 
with fifty or seventy-five other little martyrs, has been cooped up five 
hours a day for five days in the week in a room giving breathing space 
for only one-fifth of the number of occupants. 

Vitiated air has been her portion, worry and ambition for high 
marks have constantly attended her, excitement too often has been 
the food upon which she lived. She carries home in the evening an 
armful of books half as heavy as her own frail body, and lunches on 
pie and cake during the noon hour. Often she forgets her breakfast 
entirely in her haste to avoid a tardy mark. 

As to exercise, she has none, excepting the walk to and from 
school. It may be that some time during her school course she has 
been fortunate enough to be under a more progressive teacher than 
usual who has given her a few minutes' practice in calisthenics. 

The girl herself is not to blame for this. Too often she has been 
goaded on by an aspiring mother who can not bear to see her child 
excelled by some neighbor's child, or by an anxious father who wants 
to rush her through school so that she may the sooner be able to earn 
something. 

The girl is in too continual a state of worry with her school, her 
music and her drawing to take any actual open-air exercise or play, 
or to enjoy them if she does. When she does up her hair and dons 
long dresses, she is told that it is unladylike to indulge in outdoor 
games, that she will fray her dress-skirts, spoil her complexion, and a 
dozen other devices are invented to keep her indoors in conventional 
dress. 

Then comes the social party with its fashionable dress or undress, 
its rich food and late hours, in crowded and overheated rooms. The 
excitement of the card table and the dance only enhance the evil; 



128 SOCIAL PURITY. 

they are recreations only in name. Recreate is to make over, to 
renew. In reality, many times they are agents of destruction. Our 
girls should have rest; they should have recreations which do rest, not 
weary them. 

Physical Culture. Herbert Spencer says: "We do not yet realize 
the truth that in this life of ours, the physical underlies the mental. 
The mental should not be developed at the expense of the physical. 
The ancient and modern conception must be combined. Perhaps 
nothing will so much hasten the time when body and mind will both 
be adequately cared for as a diffusion of the belief that the preserva- 
tion of health is a duty. Few seem conscious that there is such a 
thing as physical morality." 

Physical culture develops, harmonizes and gives strength to the 
muscles of the body, and places them under the control of the mind. 
Physical exercise is nature's method of restoring health and giving 
strength to the body. Exercise maintains the health and strength of 
the body by regulating and stimulating the circulation of the blood. 
It is the purpose of physical culture not only to maintain health, but 
to give endurance of powers and symmetry of form. Physical exer- 
cise increases the breathing powers, co-ordinates the heart power to 
the blood-taking capacity of the lungs, makes the muscular action 
more vigorous and enduring, increases the action of the eliminating 
organs and lessens the fat. 

We often hear the expression, be natural. One of the hardest 
things in the world to do is to be natural. We are creatures of habit, 
and what becomes habitual seems natural. We must discriminate 
between the natural and the habitual. 

Running about at random in the open air is excellent so far as 
health is concerned, but it does not correct defects nor give symmetry 
of form. By regular and correct exercises, the over-developed parts 
may be diminished, and the weakness and stunted growth of other 
parts remedied. Well-directed exercises distribute the movements 
equally and thus aid respiration. Deep breathing overcomes the 
sunken chest, protruding chin, drooping shoulders, lack of interest and 
lack of purpose. 

Good position in sitting causes the muscles of the back to grow 
strong and so holds the body comfortably erect. The room should be 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 129 

well ventilated during physical training, particularly when taking 
breathing exercises. 

Standing Erect. "There are many things in the lives of women 
which tend to develop a carriage of the body anything but upright. 
Girls who tend the baby become one-sided because they carry the 
little one on one arm more than the other. They might be taught the 
better way by their parents or teachers. There are multitudes of 
little girls in all large cities whose chief business is to tend the baby 
while their mothers work. Deformity is common among them. If a 
girl has any pride in being upright in body as well as in morals, she 
can, even if she has an occupation which tends to make her crooked, 
do much herself to prevent it. In the first place carefully cultivate 
the sense which tells her when she is standing straight and when she 
is not. By paying attention to this muscular sense it becomes in time 
very acute. By neglecting it the sense becomes dull — is paralyzed. 
Cultivate it daily or several times a day by assuming the upright 
attitude. ' ' 

But you ask, how am I to know how to stand correctly? Dr. 
Mosher gives this rule: ''Stand with your heels behind your belt line, 
draw your chin back to the neck with your head level, in this position 
relax your muscles; or place one foot half its length behind its fellow, 
and without changing the position of the upper part of the body, slide 
the other foot back until the heels are in line* When the body is to 
rest upon the feet, place one foot with the heel behind the belt line 
and the other a little in advance; make the knee of the posterior leg 
firm and rest the weight of the body upon it, relaxing the muscles of 
the other leg. Transfer the weight from one leg to the other without 
changing the position of the pelvis. ' ' 

Stand before the glass and see when you are straight, or get a friend 
to tell you, and then put yourself in this attitude whenever you stand 
or walk, or sit at any labor in which you are engaged. If you have 
only to walk across the room, do it in an upright attitude. If you 
have only to stand and converse with a friend in the street, on the 
road, at a party, get yourself so accustomed to the upright attitude 
that you will feel uncomfortable in any other. In time an upright 
habit will be established, and constant attention to it will not be 
required. All twisting or drooping of the body should be avoided, 



130 SOCIAL PURITY. 

See how tall you can be. A woman can not stand correctly and look 
slovenly. And yet how few women do stand properly! 

"A woman may have a face as perfect in its classic outlines as that 
of a Greek goddess; her figure may be well proportioned, and yet she 
may appear unattractive because she does not carry herself well. 
Beauty of feature and form weighed in the balance against grace and 
carriage is always found wanting. An awkward posture is the chief 
fault in the beauty of American women who have passed thirty. One 
must note with regret the settled figures and protruding abdomens, 
for it is the tendency of the body to fall back heavily to the heels 
unless there is some exercise to offset the action. The springy step 
soon becomes a thing of the past, and walking, instead of being a 
rhythmic falling forward, becomes a jerky up-and-down movement. 
The abdomen from that time begins to protrude unpleasantly and 
grace is lost." 

"Now watch her," said a tourist friend, pointing to a peasant- 
woman who had lifted a heavy basket up to her head and was walking 
off with free, sure step. "See how steadily she carries it and how 
well her head is poised. If that were one of our countrywomen she 
would try to carry that basket on her arm, where it would be in her 
own way and in that of every one who passed. She would shift it 
from side to side, bending awkwardly under its weight, and reach her 
destination tired out. But that woman has learned how to carry a 
load — and what a fine, erect carriage she has! It's a pity our girls can 
not have a little training along that line." 

' 'Before retiring go through these exercises if you would be graceful : 
Take correct standing position, heels together, toes well apart. With- 
out moving feet or bending body, turn at the waist, with head firm, to 
right and then to left, repeating six or eight times. Same position. 
Turn body at the waist to the right, at the same time turning head to 
the left. Repeat several times; then reverse. This exercise gives 
flexibility to the waist muscles and reduces fat in that part of the 
body. 

"The four following simple exercises will greatly help to develop 
and preserve physical symmetry: 

"First, stand erect, with hands outstretched on a level with the 
shoulders, and slowly raise yourself on your toes as far as possible. 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 131 

Retain this position for an instant and then sink back upon the entire 
foot. Do this twenty times a day at first, and increase each day to a 
reasonable limit. 

"Second, place the hands on the hips, and, resting all the weight of 
the body on the right foot, slowly raise the left leg and extend it in 
front of the body. Then bend at the knee, pointing the toe down- 
ward and bringing the foot up. Repeat this ten times at first. Then 
stand on the left foot and repeat the exercise in reverse. 

"Third, stand erect, and lean over at the hips without bending the 
knees and try to touch the floor with the fingers. Day by day you 
will come nearer and nearer the floor. This exercise will make the 
body supple and strengthen the back, and will encourage grace. 

"Fourth, extend the right arm, and, placing the left on the hip, 
bend to the right side as far as possible, and then reverse the exercise, 
which should be repeated ten times at first, and, like all others, 
increased from day to day as much as circumstances will permit. 
This is an excellent general gymnastic. No woman should indulge in 
any exercise to such an extent that even the slightest strain is pos- 
sible. Fifteen minutes a day spent in exercise at home should result 
in muscular development and greatly help to retain health. 

"To remain young a woman must keep her joints limber. If 
neglected, they become painful and stiff. Women sit by a fire and 
shiver with a cold, when, if they encouraged gymnastics, the blood 
would circulate vigorously through the body and the cold would dis- 
appear. 

The Way to Sit. ' ' When our grandmothers were girls, and straight- 
backed chairs instead of cushioned divans were the usual resting- 
places, the young women held themselves with a straightness that 
was almost stiffness. Then when they grew old they still held them- 
selves like duchesses. For it is the way one sits rather than the 
exercise one takes that determines the erectness of the figure. A 
prominent physician says that the proper sitting position requires that 
the spine shall be kept straight and that the support needed for the 
upper part shall be felt in the right place. 

"Therefore, it is necessary to sit as far back in the chair as possible, 
so that the lower end of the spine shall be braced against the back of 
the seat. If this back is straight, the shoulders will also rest against 



132 SOCIAL PURITY. 

it; but even if the shoulders have no point of support, it will be found 
that they do not need it when the base of the spine is supported prop- 
erly. This position makes no strain upon the ligaments of the spine. 
Every organ of the body is properly fixed by this attitude. The feet 
should rest squarely upon the floor; the hands should rest lightly in 
the lap, and thus perfect equilibrium and rest are secured. The arms 
should never be crossed, for that position causes a strain upon the 
spine, places a weight upon the stomach and diaphragm, and thus 
increases the labor of digestion and respiration. 

The Virtues of Walking. "To the American girl who wishes to 
keep the beauty she has, or to acquire the beauty she has not, Dr. 
George F. Shrady gives a prescription in one word — 'walk!' 

"Sickness is destructive of good looks. To be a chronic dyspeptic, 
always on the edge of nervous collapse, and be a charming personality 
at the same time, is a task beyond the power of man or woman. 

"Of all the forms of exercise, walking is, no doubt, the least popular. 
One reason for this is that the trolley-car now goes everywhere, not 
only through the city streets, but through the country fields, tempting 
us at every step of our walk, if we start on one, to get aboard and 
make quick time. 

"Then, again, walking is so easy and so cheap. It does not have to 
be learned and it costs nothing. Bicycling, golfing, horseback riding 
and boating all call for a course of instruction, special clothing and 
equipments, and are all more or less expensive. 

"And it is the thing that is most difficult and costs most money that 
men and women are prone to prefer. Hence the proverb: 'Things 
that cost nothing are worth nothing. ' 

"There are few things more conducive to health than quick walking. 
It expands the chest, strengthens the muscles, especially those of the 
lower extremities, promotes digestion, clears the complexion and 
exhilarates the spirits. 

"No exercise can be more healthful for the average girl than the 
various household occupations and light gardening. In housework 
one brings into action nearly all the muscles of the body, and if the 
clothing be properly worn, there is not a part which may not be 
strengthened." 

In her article on "The Lady Who Does Her Own Work," Mrs, 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 133 

Harriet Beecher Stowe dwells on the value of housework in giving the 
most healthful form of exercise. 

"Would it not be quite as cheerful and less expensive a process," 
she asks, "if young girls from early life developed the muscles in 
sweeping, dusting, ironing, rubbing furniture, and all the multiplied 
domestic processes which our grandmothers knew of?" and then adds: 
"I will venture to say that our grandmothers in a week went over 
every movement that any gymnast has invented, and went over them 
to some productive purpose, too." 

Here is a hint that women with thin arms would do well to take. 
Clara Louise Kellogg, the singer, when a young girl, was much 
annoyed by the attenuated appearance of her arms when she began to 
don evening dress at her crowded concerts. Some one recommended 
a brisk use of the broom, which advice she followed, and soon had a 
round, plump member as the reward of her labor. If a thin, listless 
girl, with a dull eye and stare, can by any means be persuaded to try 
the "broom cure," she will be astonished to find what a beautifier it 
really is. 

In gardening, besides the advantage of being in the open air, there 
is the pleasure of contact with growing nature, and the satisfaction of 
seeing the result of carefully devised plans in growth of plants and 
flowers, all of which act as an antidote to depression and fatigue. 

Recreation. Work of any kind is a mere routine process, of which 
we become tired unless we change the surroundings or vary the cir- 
cumstances. To obtain the greatest amount of benefit from active 
work it should be combined with pleasure. We need some kind of 
diversion, some recreation as an antidote for irksome toil. "All work 
and no play makes Jack a dull boy," is true to a letter. Athletic 
sports and outdoor games are not only necessary to health, but are 
conducive to good morals and happiness. Amusements of the proper 
kind have a beneficial influence on mind and body. They are helpful 
stimulants, genuine tonics. 

Swimming is a pleasing and important exercise. It is a charming 
accomplishment for a young woman. It combines all the advantages 
to be derived from bathing with the active movement of nearly every 
part of the body. It is not only a means to physical culture and a 
recreation, but may be necessary for self-preservation. 



134 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Rowing. Rowing may be ranked among the most active forms of 
exercise, and is one of the most pleasurable as well. To the robust 
and those in perfect health, this exercise, when not carried too far, is 
admirably calculated to impart strength to the arms and breadth and 
development to the chest. If indulged in to the neglect of other 
forms of exercise, it may produce a partial and ungraceful expansion 
of the body. 

Riding on Horseback. Riding on horseback is a fine and graceful 
recreation for a young woman and for many reasons should be more 
generally practiced. 

Cycling. The hygienic value of the sensible use of the bicycle can 
not be overestimated. As a means for acquiring strength and vigor, 
improving the circulation and developing the respiratory organs, 
cycling is unexcelled. But this form of recreation is too often abused. 
Fast riding among those not accustomed to physical exertion, and 
leaning over the handle-bars in a stooped position, are to be con- 
demned. The fascination of this recreation often tempts one to 
overdo, to ride too long and too fast for one's strength. 

The dress of a young woman should be loose, and so made as to 
give perfect freedom of movement, and not long enough to come in 
contact with the dangerous part of the machine. Should she suffer 
from disease of the sexual organs, she should consult a physician 
before taking this form of exercise. 

Skating, Skating is another outdoor recreation which exercises a 
large number of muscles, strengthens the ankles, aids digestion and 
circulation, and tones up the nervous system. Like cycling, there is 
a temptation to overdo because of the fascination of the sport. By 
beginning gradually, and being careful not to cool off too suddenly 
after the exercise, a girl may be greatly benefited by this form of 
recreation, provided that she be suitably dressed. 

Other Recreations. Archery, tennis, croquet, basket-bail, golf, 
jumping the rope, tossing the grace-hoop, all have advantages to 
recommend them, the greatest of which is that they get one out in the 
open air. 

Purpose of Recreation. The worth of a recreation is its ability to 
enable the fatigued and overtaxed parts of the body to rest. Any form 
of recreation that will accomplish this and make one forget herself, 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 135 

her burdens and anxieties without leaving a sting of regret, will have 
accomplished its purpose. 

Singing. From the medical standpoint, singing is a most impor- 
tant exercise, on account of its influence on the emotions, on the 
respiratory movements, and on the development of the lungs. Noth- 
ing better shows the beneficial effect of singing in developing the chest 
and warding off lung diseases than the great pulmonary development 
and freedom from pulmonary disease among professional singers. 
Their general health, moreover, is exceptionally good, and this is 
probably in a large measure attributable to the mere exercise of their 
calling. "Such therapeutic importance do I attach to singing," says 
a great doctor, "that I recommend it whenever opportunity affords. It 
is especially useful in defective chest-development and in chronic 
heart disease. It is scarcely necessary to say that the singer should 
be so clad as to allow absolute freedom of the chest movements; there 
should be no constriction of the neck or waist, the collar should be low 
and ample, and the stays, if worn, ample and loose." 

Dancing. Dancing in itself is a graceful amusement, and under 
proper conditions may be very beneficial. But combined with over- 
heated rooms, untimely eating and drinking, overwrought nerves, 
excited passions and late hours, it becomes a questionable recreation, 
if not an absolute evil. If the exercise were taken in the open air, 
without the close contact of the sexes, the immodest dress and the 
late hours, more could be said in its favor. But when a large number 
of prostitute women trace their fall to the passions excited in the 
dance, then it is time to find some form of amusement and recreation 
which will renew and not destroy. 

A noted archbishop, of New York, says that the confessional of his 
church has revealed the fact that a large per cent, of the women who 
fall, take their first downward step in dancing parties. 

Young men of principle have left an immodestly dressed partner, 
so inflamed with passion that they dared not trust themselves longer 
in the presence of her whom their arms have encircled in the whirl of 
the round dance. Others, less conscientious, have gone from the one 
protected by friends of wealth and influence, to seduce some innocent 
child of poverty or toil. 

Evangelist Barrow, of Nebraska, says: "I have noticed that people 



136 SOCIAL PURITY. 

lose interest in Christianity when they become interested in dancing. 
Take from dancing all that belongs to Satan's kingdom — the tendency 
to lust and libertinism — and there is nothing left to make a dance of; 
eliminate its patent, glaring tendency toward an unholy and unlawful 
association of the sexes, and there will be an end of dancing." 

Were men to dance with those of their own sex and women among 
themselves, the exercise might be beneficial, provided it were taken in 
moderation, in a well-ventilated room and at a seasonable hour. 

Cards. Should a young woman play cards or other games of 
chance? is a question that at some time in life she will probably have 
to answer. As an amusement there is but little to say in its favor. 
Simple in the beginning, there is yet danger ahead. Where one may 
have the strength to resist the fascination which leads to gambling, 
two will be led astray. Like Paul, she should be able to say, "If 
meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world 
standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. ' ' 

Whatever amusement soothes the nerves, rests the weary brain and 
tired body, without leaving a sting to poison self or another, is a 
proper recreation. Whatever recreation is beneficial for a boy is like- 
wise helpful for a girl, provided she does not go beyond her strength. 
Those exercises which are taken in the open air are the ones which 
should receive the most attention, as girls and women are more inclined 
to remain indoors than are the opposite sex. Those inclined to lung 
difficulties should spend as much time outdoors as possible. Such 
exercises as musical directors give in the special culture of the voice, 
not only increase its strength, but, combined with the breathing exer- 
cise, are excellent practice to expand the lung capacity. 

Dress. But one of the notable hindrances to this form of exercise 
is the dress of civilized womanhood. Women are handicapped by 
tight clothing around the chest, a multiplicity of tight bands about 
the waist, and long, heavy skirts weighing down the abdomen. Notice 
for a moment how the waist is swathed by bands. First, there is the 
chemise, or under-vest; after that the drawer band of two thicknesses; 
then two skirt bands, each of two thicknesses of cloth. Following 
this in many cases is a corset of two thicknesses of twilled cloth, then 
a corset cover, after which comes the dress-skirt band, which counts 
two more thicknesses of cloth. Add to these a lined dress-waist and 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 137 

an outside ornamental, belt, and you have the result, fifteen thick- 
nesses of cloth around the waist-line. Is it any wonder that women 
have the backache and complain of shortness of breath? All these 
bands. about the waist are more or less tight. Above and below are 
found the most delicate and complicated organs, which, if obstructed 
in their work, are the source of most of the ailments of womankind. 

The health of women demands a more sensible style of dress, and 
we are on the outer edge of such a reformation. We have discarded 
the close-fitting, boned basque for the loose shirt-waist, but Fashion 
would deprive us of the short skirt if she could. 

The Corset. Shortness of breath is only another name for tight- 
lacing. The chest is so compressed by the corset that the free action 
of the diaphragm is interrupted. Not only does this occur, but the 
circulation of the blood is so impeded that the extremities are often 
cold to numbness, the head aches, the eyes blur, the brain wearies and 
the whole system is deranged. Below the waist-line the bowels press 
upon the womb, the womb upon the bladder, and a whole train- of 
evils ensue. The falling of the womb, so painful and trying, the 
inflammation of the bladder and kidneys, are traced directly to the 
habit of tight-lacing. Liver troubles are also engendered by the evil 
habit. And what is it all for? It is not an enviable possession, a 
small waist. In reality it is a malformation, a defect*. A large form 
with a small waist is out of proportion, therefore out of harmony 
with its surroundings, and can not be beautiful. A large house with 
little windows, or a low-ceiled room with a wide-bordered, large-figured 
wall paper, strikes the eye unpleasantly in the same way. 

Long Skirts. That long skirts are a serious menace to health has 
apparently been proved by Dr. Casagrandi, a distinguished scientist 
of Rome. At a congress which was held in the Eternal City he told 
his colleagues that he had made some simple experiments which had 
convinced him that the fashion of wearing trailing skirts ought at 
once to be abandoned. 

He had employed a number of women, wearing long skirts, to walk 
for one hour through the streets of the city, and, after their promen- 
ade was over, he had taken their skirts and had submitted them to a 
careful examination. As a result, he had found on each skirt large 

*See page 107. 



138 SOCIAL PURITY. 

colonies of noxious germs, including those of influenza, consumption, 
typhoid fever and tetanus. The bacilli of minor diseases were also 
well represented on each skirt. 

Dr. Casagrandi maintained that, in view of these facts, women, and 
especially mothers, ought at once to stop wearing long skirts. The 
other members of the congress unhesitatingly expressed the same 
opinion and passed a resolution to the same effect. A French writer, 
commenting on these experiments, says that the sooner this time 
comes the better pleased will be all those who have made a study of 
hygiene and who know how dangerous to public health the long skirt is. 

The long skirt also interferes with the free movement of the limbs. 
Nervous force is wasted in the effort to walk, and weak and sickly 
women are discouraged from attempting to exercise in this way, and 
so lose what little muscular strength they have. 

Dressing Warmly. Dr. Harriet M. Austin says: "One of the great 
physiological sins of women is that they cover the extremities of the 
body so poorly that the circulation has to be maintained at an 
immense waste of life. If the body is well clad over the whole sur- 
face, the limbs being as warmly dressed as the other parts, the exter- 
nal circulation is kept up with comparative ease, the blood passing 
through the capillary vessels readily; but when any part of the surface 
is inadequately covered, the blood has to be forced along at a disad- 
vantage, and there is an unnecessary strain upon the vital energies. 
Neither men nor women, as a general thing, have any conception of 
the ill-health which accrues to women from the lack of sufficient 
clothing. Thousands of women go through life without ever being 
comfortably warm in winter." 

Shoes. Strong leather shoes, with broad, low heels and thick 
soles, are sometimes worn by sensible women who desire health more 
than to be known as fashionable. High heels do not make a foot look 
beautiful, and actually mar an otherwise good figure. The high heels 
throw the body forward, and thus disturb the equilibrium of all the 
organs. 

Distribution of Clothing. Mrs. E. R. Shepherd says: "The cloth- 
ing should be equally distributed over the body. This point is of 
infinite importance. . . . Those parts of the body which nature pro- 
vides with fat and muscle need less extra covering than those in which 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 139 

the bones and nerves lie near the surface. The ankles and wrists, 
then, ought to be protected more than the top of the head and small 
of the back. The head needs rather to be kept cool." 

The spine should be kept well protected; it ought never to be 
chilled. 

Bundling the neck with furs makes it so tender and sensitive that 
when uncovered, there is danger from taking cold. Fur caps are a 
fruitful source of throat and bronchial difficulties, and the sooner they 
go out of fashion the better. 

Suspenders. Skirts and stockings should be suspended from the 
shoulders instead of the hips. These supporters are kept in an ordi- 
nary dry-goods store and may be had for a small sum of money. 
Having once supported the skirts in this way, you will not again wear 
them dragging upon your hips. 

Foods. As we have seen, the body is constantly undergoing 
changes. The waste matter is continually removed to make place 
for new building material. This building supply is made from the 
food which we eat, and is necessary to replace the worn-out matter. 
That condition of the body in which there is a perfect balance between 
waste and supply constitutes health. Food is that which, taken into 
the stomach, can be digested and used to rebuild the tissues of the 
body, or which will produce heat and energy in the body without 
injury to it. In order that food may be in proper condition for use, it 
must undergo a preparation called digestion. 

After it has been properly prepared, each different substance must 
be taken and fitted to its special place in the system; this is called 
assimilation. When the food is taken to the place assigned to it by 
the process of assimilation, it becomes a part of the body and main- 
tains the symmetry and usefulness of that part to which it is fitted; 
this is known as nutrition. 

Food Elements. The food elements which nourish the tissues of 
the body are made up of four kinds of matter: carbon, oxygen, 
hydrogen and nitrogen. 

The respiratory food elements contain carbon, oxygen and hydro- 
gen, but no nitrogen, and are used as fuel and burned by a slow proc- 
ess of combustion to keep up the temperature of the body. Not 

everything that is eaten or burned in the organism is food or fuel for 
10 



140 SOCIAL PURITY. 

the body. When the stomach is in a healthy condition, it will digest 
real food and pass it into the circulation, where it will be used to build 
up the tissues or to supply heat to the body. If it is not real food, 
the vital forces will seek to expel it from the system. This means 
extra work for the vital forces and causes disorder and disease. If 
one overeats and more food is taken into the stomach than can be 
used, the surplus will clog action unless removed. 

So that we see that foods, their digestion and assimilation, the 
quantity and quality are subjects of vital importance to mankind. As 
to eating, the what, how, when, where and why may be equally val- 
uable. 

What? The nutritive principles, as albumen, fibrin, gluten and 
casein, are contained in such food materials as wheat, oatmeal, peas, 
beans, beef, etc. These principles or elements are formed by the 
growth of plants. We get the same elements in flesh food, second- 
hand, but in a more compact form. 

There are articles taken into the stomach which satisfy the sense 
of hunger without having those properties which nourish the body. 
These are not foods properly speaking, though we think of them as 
such. They are simply stimulants, or possibly worse, irritants or 
nerve-poisons. 

That which would be proper food for infants and young children 
would not be suitable for a muscular outdoor laborer. Also a diet 
which would be suitable for a young woman would not supply the 
needs of a woman nourishing a child. Therefore, it is necessary to 
make a selection of foods suited to age, sex, condition, occupation 
and habits of life. 

How? Eat slowly. Plenty of time should be taken to thoroughly 
chew the food and mix it with the saliva so that the stomach may the 
more readily do its part of the work. 

The opinion that hurry in eating is a prolific cause of dyspepsia is 
founded on common observation. The ills resulting from bolting 
food have been attributed to the lack of thorough mastication and to 
the incomplete action of the saliva upon the food. Two-thirds of the 
food which we eat is starch, and starch can not be utilized in the 
system as food until it has been converted into sugar, and this change 
is principally effected by the saliva. But there is a third reason why 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 141 

rapidity of eating interferes with digestion. The presence of the 
salivary secretion in the stomach acts as a stimulus to the secretion of 
the gastric juice. Irrespective of the mechanical function of the teeth, 
food which goes into the stomach incompletely mingled with saliva 
passes slowly and imperfectly through the process of stomach diges- 
tion. Therefore, as a sanitary maxim of no mean value, teach the 
children to eat slowly and in giving this instruction, by example, the 
teacher, as well as the pupil, may receive benefit. 

When? Food will be more agreeable and the process of digestion 
hastened when the mind is free and the body at rest. 

There should be regularity in eating. The stomach must have 
intervals of rest or its energies will become exhausted, its functions 
impaired and dyspepsia result. The stomach can no more work con- 
tinually without injury to itself and the whole system than can the 
brain or the body. Many people, especially children and young girls, 
are munching at something during most of their waking hours, and 
then complain that they have no appetite at meal time and that they 
do not sleep well. 

Where? Our meals should be eaten in bright, cheery rooms under 
the most pleasant conditions. 

Many families seem to think that any place is good enough to 
eat in, forgetting that surroundings have much to do with the 
appetite. 

Why? Why do we eat? Is it simply to gratify pleasure? We 
have shown that with every thought, motion and act the bodily tissues 
are worn out, that these tissues must be replaced, that they are 
replaced by the assimilation of nutritious food, hence if food is to do 
us any good we must eat it. 

Just Enough. The building up of the body depends not on the 
amount eaten, but on the quantity digested and assimilated. We are 
in danger of eating more than we need rather than not enough. One 
of Benjamin Franklin's rules was to rise from the table before hunger 
was quite satisfied; this requires some strength of character to do. 
The variety of food on our tables often tempts us to overeat and thus 
deranges digestion. While we need a variety of food, we do not need 
a large variety at one meal. The change should be made in the dif- 
ferent meals. 



142 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Kinds of Pood. Foods should be plain and simple and not too 
highly seasoned. Rich pastries, cakes, pickles, puddings and sweet- 
meats should be avoided if only what is necessary for perfect nutrition 
and health is desired. 

Tea and Coffee. Tea and coffee should also be banished from the 
list, and all alcoholic beverages should be scrupulously avoided. The 
first are nerve irritants and the latter poisonous to the system. 

Water. Water is the natural drink of man and animals. Nothing 
in the way of drink can be a perfect substitute. However, even this 
should not be taken at meal time, as it prevents the use of the saliva, 
dilutes the gastric juice, lowers the temperature of the stomach, and 
thus weakens digestion. 

Animal Foods. The principal animal foods are beef, mutton, pork, 
fish and fowl. Beef and mutton are richest in muscle-producing material. 

Fish and fowl are easily digested and contain the valuable ele- 
ments of food. 

Vegetable Foods. Wheat is rich in the four food elements, and 
when the flour is unbolted is the most complete article for the supply 
of the bodily tissues. Barley stands next, but is not so pleasant to 
the taste. The fine white bread, the pride of so many housewives, 
abounding in starch and lacking in gluten, is largely the cause of con- 
stipation. The gluten lies next to the bran and contains the nitrates 
and phosphates which feed the muscles, brain and nerves. If the 
whole grain were used, beside getting the most valuable part, the bran 
would furnish the residuum for fecal matter, and a perfect food would 
be found in the bread from the whole wheat grain. As it is, our pigs 
and chickens fare better than we ourselves. 

People who labor mentally require more phosphorus than those 
engaged in manual labor. This is also found in the whole wheat and 
in fish and eggs. 

Fruits and Vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are valuable articles 
of food, as the acids they contain are largely composed of oxygen, and 
when combined with the carbon of other food greatly assist digestion. 
They also supply water and increase the residual matter of the excre- 
ment. 

Milk. Milk is easily digested and very nutritious on account of 
the variety of food elements it contains. 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 143 

Food Hints. One writer gives the following summary: "Fruits 
and cereals are best suited for the morning and evening meals. Fruit 
should be eaten at the beginning rather than at the end of a meal. 

Most vegetables are better when eaten at the midday meal. 

Cereals and fruits are better than meat and fat for warm weather, 
and meats and fat are better suited for cold than warm weather. 

Potatoes and some other foods when baked will digest in much 
less time than when boiled or fried. 

All grains and vegetables should be thoroughly cooked, especially 
green fruits and green vegetables. 

Tomatoes do well with almost everything except fruit. 

The time for digestion depends much upon how food is cooked. 

Nuts and crackers, ground together (in a coffee mill) make a good 
food combination and may be eaten with milk. 

Many of the highest authorities on dietetics and hygiene claim that 
all condiments, salts, spices, vinegar, etc., are not nutritious and 
retard digestion, being mostly irritants and stimulants. 

Jules Verne is enjoying robust health at the age of seventy in his 
quiet home at Amiens, where he lives on herbs and eggs, a diet to 
which he attributes his vitality. He has written a book for every year 
of his life, with six volumes to spare, and is still at work. ' ' 

Meat Not a Necessary Food. Mrs. S. T. Rorer writes on "Do 
We Eat Too Much Meat?" in the Ladies' Home Journal, answer- 
ing her own query affirmatively. "Meat," she asserts, "is not at all 
necessary to a perfect existence. Most people, however, look upon it 
as though it formed the only food upon which they could work, and 
yet many great athletes have never touched it. Meat, after it enters 
the stomach and is digested, may be injurious, but for all this the 
ordinary American has made up his mind that lean meat gives him 
less trouble than any other food, so he takes it in large quantities, 
invariably breaking down at middle life with just such diseases as 
come from the overuse of concentrated nitrogenous foods. Children 
fed on beef juice and beef soups, with white bread, lose the various 
salts necessary to the building of bone, teeth and muscle, and the soda 
for the blood. The outer part of the wheat, which is so rich in these 
earthy salts, is cast aside, so that the child in growing gets weak bone 
structure as a frame for its lean flesh. The stalwart men of Scotland 



144 SOCIAL PURITY. 

find that porridge and milk contain all the muscle, bone and nerve food 
necessary for an active existence. 

"An excess of carbonaceous food, on the other hand, forms an 
accumulation of fat, preventing the complete nourishment of the 
muscles. The over-fat person has bulk without strength; his vital 
power is always deficient, while the excess of nitrogenous food which 
he consumes increases the tendency to disease of a plethoric character, 
showing at once that the surplus is burned and stored the same as fuel 
foods. ' ' 

One Cause of 111 Temper. The author of Diet in Sickness and 
Health, an English woman, affirms that an excessive use of meat is 
responsible for a good deal of ill temper. In support of this theory 
she says: 

"If we compare domestic life and manners in England with those 
of other countries where meat does not form such an integral article 
of diet, a notable improvement will be marked. In less meat-eating 
France urbanity is the rule of the house. In fish and rice-eating Japan 
harsh words are unknown, and an exquisite politeness to another pre- 
vails even among children who play together in the street. In Japan 
I never heard rude, angry words spoken by any but Englishmen. I 
am strongly of the opinion that the ill temper of the English is caused 
in a great measure by a too abundant meat dietary, combined with a 
sedentary life. The half-oxidized products of albumen form urates 
and uric acid which, circulating in the blood, produce both mental 
and moral disturbances. ' ' 

Rev. J. T. Clymer, in his little work on Food and Morals, points 
to the remedy in the following case and a great many like it : "A father, 
by prayer, precept and flogging, had done his best to reform his boy, 
whose staple diet was meat, sausage, pie and cake at his meals, with 
lunch between. The family physician said to the father: 'If you will 
put a leech back of each of your boy's ears once a week for a month 
you will do more to reform him than your preaching and pounding 
will do in a year. ' The father asked for the philosophy of this pre- 
scription. 'Why,' said the doctor, 'your boy has bad blood and too 
much of it; he must behave badly or he would burst. ' 'Then,' said 
the father, 'I'll change his diet from beef and pie to hominy and milk.' 
In three months thereafter a better boy of his age could not be found 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE.' 145 

in the neighborhood. The acrid, biting, evil blood had not become 
food for leeches, but had done its wicked work and passed away, and 
a cool order, blander power, safer blood had been supplied from 
sweeter, gentler food services. " Another writer says: 

"We make a threefold mistake in our food economy: 

"First, we purchase needlessly expensive kinds of food. We use 
the costlier kinds of meat, fish, vegetables and the like, when the less 
expensive ones are just as nutritious, and, when rightly cooked, are 
just as palatable. Many do this under the impression that there is 
some peculiar virtue in the dear food materials, and that economy in 
their diet is somehow detrimental to their dignity or their welfare. 
And, unfortunately, those who are most extravagant in this respect 
are often the ones who can least afford it. 

"Second, our diet is apt to be one-sided. It often does not contain 
the different nutritive ingredients in the proper proportions. We 
consume relatively too much of the fuel ingredients of food — those 
which are burned in the body, and yield heat and muscular power. 
Such are the fats of meat and butter, the starch which makes up the 
larger part of the nutritive material of flour, potatoes and sugar, of 
which such enormous quantities are eaten in the United States. Con- 
versely, we have relatively too little of the protein or flesh-forming 
substances, like the lean of meat and fish and the gluten of wheat, 
which make muscle and sinew, and which are the basis of blood, bone 
and brain. 

"Third, we use excessive quantities of food. This is true not only 
of the well-to-do, but of many people in moderate circumstances also. 
Part of the excess which is bought is thrown away in the wastes of 
the kitchen and the table, so that the injury to health from overeat- 
ing, great as it may be, is doubtless much less than if all of the food 
we buy were actually eaten. Probably the worst sufferers from this 
evil are the well-to-do people of sedentary occupations — brain work- 
ers. Not everybody eats too much; indeed, there are some who do 
not eat enough for healthful nourishment. But there are those — and 
their name is legion — with whom overeating is as vicious in its effects 
on health as the drink-habit, which is universally deplored." 

The Diet of a College Student. Dr. J. D. Craig, of Chicago, an 
eminent chemist, has, upon request, made the following statement; 



146 SOCIAL PURITY. 

"More students break down from being overstimulated and underfed 
than from overwork. 

"The best diet for a student is that which is best for an athlete, 
and although a stimulating food, like flesh meat, may answer for short 
sprints of work, either physical or mental, it has not the staying qual- 
ities of vegetables, grains, fruits and nuts." 

Water as a Beautifier. 4 'There is no real standard of beauty unless 
we except the lines for which an artist looks. We are not all artists, 
and we judge of beauty by our own ideals. Each nation has its 
standard; the ideals of one would not be those of another. Neverthe- 
less, there is one standard which we all recognize — that of good 
health. It shines in the eye, glows in the cheek, reddens the lip and 
quickens the step. It also makes one at peace with the world, for, 
indeed, as a rule the temperament is simply a matter of the liver. A 
torpid liver will in time spoil the temper of an angel. 

"How many women drink enough water? Very few, indeed, and no 
wonder they have dried-up, wrinkled faces and figures! And yet 
every woman can have a water cure at home. The first thing after 
rising in the morning the teeth should be brushed, and one or two 
glassfuls of water drunk. If the liver needs stimulating, the water 
should be hot and a little salt added. Drink frequently between 
meals, but never while eating. Fully a pint of water should be taken 
before breakfast and on retiring." — Maude C. Murray-Miller ', in 
Woman s Home Companion, 

Drinking freely of tea and coffee, ice-water and other beverages at 
meals, is a most pernicious practice. It is almost universally associ- 
ated with the practice of "bolting" the food. It is better to drink 
nothing during the meal. The necessary amount of fluid may be sup- 
plied by taking a glass of water half an hour before eating. If the 
bill of fare includes a sufficient amount of fruit, no liquid will be 
necessary at the meal. If soup or any other liquid food constitutes a 
prominent feature of the meal, there is certainly no need of taking 
drink of any sort. 

"Water is really our only true beverage," Mrs. S. T. Rorer writes 
in her cooking lesson in the Ladies' Home Journal. "Forming, as it 
does, three-quarters of the weight of the human body, it is of the next 
importance to the air we breathe. Milk is a typical food, not a bev- 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 147 

erage, and should never be used as such. It is true that it contains a 
large amount of water, but only sufficient for its digestion. In a very 
short time the non-water-drinker becomes sallow, constipated and 
uncomfortable. The poison matter that should be dissolved by the 
free use of water, and carried off in the circulation and through the 
excretory organs, is held in the system ; the body loses weight, the 
skin becomes dry and rough, losing its life and brilliancy. Three- 
quarters of the weight of the living body should be water. A large 
quantity of this water is taken in the form of green vegetables and 
fruits. A healthy person should drink at least a quart and a half of 
cool (not iced) water in each twenty-four hours — a glass the first thing 
in the morning and the last thing at night, and the remaining quantity 
after or between meals. Infants frequently suffer more from the lack 
of cool water than from the lack of food." IJJJ 

Here are two theories presented by different writers: (i) The 
light, fruit breakfast and (2) the no-breakfast. The writer has tried 
both, and from experience believes the first, as a rule, to be the 
better. But for dyspeptics, caused from too high living, the second 
is preferable to medical stomach remedies. 

Eating Fruit at Breakfast. "The business of breakfast is a most 
important one, for it stores the human battery with power for the 
day's work. A good breakfast gives a man staying qualities and 
equips him for almost any emergency likely to occur. 

"What are the essentials of a proper breakfast? The first, the most 
important, item is a preliminary meal of fruit — oranges, grapes, apples, 
canteloupe, berries — seasonable fruit in which juice predominates over 
fiber. Fruit-juices taken early on an empty stomach are converted 
into alkalies, keep the blood normally alkaline, preventing saturation 
of the system with uric acid and warding off the storms of suffering 
which such a condition provokes. 

"Fruit-juices act as correctives to the digestive organs, whetting 
the appetite, increasing the secretion of gastric juice and stimulating 
peristalsis. Where fruit is eaten every morning digestion is satisfac- 
tory, the head is clear and an agreeable feeling of general well-being 
is experienced. 

"Too much emphasis can not be laid upon this matter of a prelimi- 
nary fruit breakfast. If accustomed to_eating a small breakfast, yom 



148 SOCIAL PURITY. 

should lighten the noon lunch and six-o'clock dinner. You will sleep 
better and rise with appetite. If the fruit does not appear to agree 
with you at first, try a small beginning. Take only an orange; drink 
the juice and reject the fiber. Persist, and the stomach will adapt 
itself. Gradually add a bunch of grapes and an apple. You will be 
surprised at the far-reaching benefit derived from so simple a practice. 
After the fruit, the usual breakfast of a chop and rolls, omelet, pota- 
toes, coffee or what not is in order. ' ' 

A Day Without Breakfast. "The non-breakfast diet is one that 
has more adherents than is suspected. A woman was encountered 
the other day who said that not a morsel was cooked in her home any 
day in the year until the noonday meal. Her children went off to 
school, her husband to his business, and even the maid, who had 
become a convert, went through her morning duties — all without 
breaking their fasts. The theory on which these two-meals-a-day 
folk base their conduct is that no work being done after the late and 
hearty dinner, and little tissue waste following during the hours of 
sleep, the body has sufficient energy stored from the evening meal to 
meet the demands of the next forenoon's work. To take a hearty 
breakfast, they claim, is simply to provide a surplus of supply, and 
by just so much overtax the system. The elimination, therefore, 
of these three hundred and sixty-five meals a year means conserving of 
energy, which, in the aggregate, is very valuable. They say, too, 
that after the first week or two it requires no effort to begin the day 
without food, and even the aromatic Mocha, steaming through the 
house, produces no effect upon their resolutions. This same woman 
is authority for the statement that the adherents of this diet or want 
of diet are numerous, a statement that is sustained by recent news- 
paper reports from various places. ' ' 

Why We Cook Food. This is what another writer has to say of 
cooked food: "It would be absurd, in the face of the tempting 
viands daily placed before us, to say that food would be just as well 
uncooked. Yet to render food more palatable is the least of the 
reasons for cooking it. 

"Man is endowed with teeth Vhich are suitable for the mastication 
of both flesh and a vegetable diet; and it would need but a compara- 
tively short time to accustom him to raw food of either description. 



LOOKING TOWARD MARRIAGE. 149 

"Unfortunately, or fortunately, as the case may be, all food has to 
undergo certain changes before it can be taken into the system as 
nourishment. Part of these changes take place in the mouth when 
the food is subdivided by the process of chewing or mastication, and 
part are made by the action of the juices of the stomach upon the mass. 

"Nourishment depends upon the completeness with which food is 
changed by the processes of mastication and digestion. In this 
modern era, when everything is done with a rush, there is great 
danger of throwing upon the stomach more work than it can do, by 
the hasty and inefficient manner in which we chew our food. 

"Here we perceive the great province of cooking — that of an inter- 
mediary agent between an insufficient mastication and an overtaxed 
stomach. In other words, cooking may be made to serve, to some 
degree, the purpose of mastication. Potatoes cooked till they are 
mealy need much less time and chewing than those which are boiled 
hard and soggy. 

"On the same principle, the pride of the housewife is in her light 
and spongy bread. It is better than the ( hard cakes of milled corn 
and water that were relished in primeval days, because the minute 
bubbles of air which are incorporated into the bread facilitate its 
digestion, without the labor of long chewing which the cakes 
demanded. 

"Meats and vegetables, upon being properly cooked, lose the cover- 
ing inside of which the fibers and grains of nutriment are hid, a result 
which, it is true, may be similarly obtained by mastication. 

"We must not suppose, however, that it is easy to obtain proper 
results in cooking, or to recognize them when they have been obtained. 
Because an article of food is palatable and slips into the stomach 
without effort, may be the last of reasons why it should be nutritious 
and easily taken care of by the stomach. 

"Indeed, so great are the difficulties in mastering the proper meth- 
ods of cooking, and so important are such methods to the human 
economy, that the subject deserves to be treated rather as a science 
than as an art." 



CHAPTER VII. 

AFTER MARRIAGE — HOME. 

Woman's Relation to Man. When the All-wise spoke woman into 
existence he gave her as a companion for man. What then must be 
her position with respect to man? And what must be the relation 
between them to increase the welfare, happiness and authority of 
both? Let Ruskin, woman's magnanimous friend, lead us to the great 
teachers and writers of the ages to hear their verdict as to the true 
dignity of woman and her mode of help to man. 

In referring to the great English dramatist, he says: " Shakespeare 
has no heroes; he has only heroines. . . . There is hardly a play that 
has not a perfect woman in it, steadfast in grave hope and errorless 
purpose, and conceived in the highest, heroic type of humanity. The 
catastrophe of every play is caused by the folly or fault of man; the 
redemption, if there be any, is by the wisdom and virtue of woman, 
and, failing that, there is none. 

"The catastrophe of King Lear is owing to his want of judgment, 
his impatient vanity, his misunderstanding of his children; the virtue 
of his one true daughter would have saved him from all the injuries 
of the others, unless he had cast her away from him; as it is, she all 
but saves him." 

Of Othello's weakness, Shakespeare makes Emilia say: "Oh, 
murderous coxcomb! What should such a fool do with so good a 
wife?" 

Ruskin shows us that in Coriolanus the mother's counsel, acted 
upon in time, would have saved her son from all evil ; her prayer at 
last granted, saves him not, indeed, from death, but from the curse 
of living as the destroyer of his country. 

He also observes that among all the principal figures in Shake- 
speare's plays there is only one weak woman — Ophelia. And though 
three of his principal figures are wicked women, they are felt to be 
frightful exceptions to the ordinary laws of life; fatal in their influ- 
ence also in proportion to the power for good which they have aban- 

150 




Grandma's Bible Stories. 
FAITHFUL TO DUTY. 



AFTER MARRIAGE. 151 

doned. Taking the great poet's testimony, we find that he represents 
women as "infallibly faithful and wise counselors — incorruptibly just 
and pure examples—strong always to sanctify, even when they can 
not save." 

Scott pictures his women with grace, tenderness, intellectual 
power, dignity and justice, together with an untiring affection and 
self-sacrifice which, by degrees, transform their unworthy lovers into 
noble, manly characters. 

In Dante's great poem: "His dead lady-love stoops only to pity, to 
save him from destruction. She comes from heaven to his help, to 
be his teacher, interpreting for him the most difficult truths, divine 
and human; and leading him with rebuke upon rebuke, from star to 
star. ' ' 

Woman's Influence on Man. One of the old Italian poets makes 
a knight of Pisa say to his lady: 

"A man from a wild beast 
Thou madest me, since for thy love I lived." 

The Greek knight, too, as well as the Christian lover, regarded as 
a trust the personal character of the woman of his choice. 

Cato, the Roman censor, naively asserts that all men naturally 
rule women, we govern men, and our wives govern us. 

Longfellow's women are ideals of faithfulness and gentle, unassum- 
ing love. 

Ruskin says: "The soul's armor is never well set to the heart 
unless a woman's hand has braced it, and it is only when she has 
braced it too loosely that the honor of man fails." 

A wife's influence receives this testimony from the pen of Thomas 
Hood in a letter to his wife: "I never was anything till I knew you; 
and I have been better, happier and a more prosperous man ever 
since. Lay that truth by in lavender, and remind me of it when I 
fail. I am writing fondly and warmly; but not without good cause. 
First, your own affectionate letter, lately received; next, the remem- 
brance of our dear children, pledges of our old familiar love; then a 
delicious impulse to pour out the overflowings of my heart into yours; 
and last, not least, the knowledge that your dear eyes will read what 
my hands are now writing. Perhaps there is an after-thought, that 



152 SOCIAL PURITY. 

whatever may befall me, the wife of my bosom will have this acknowl- 
edgment of her tenderness, worth and excellence of all that is wifely 
and womanly, from my pen." 

Woman's Tender Sympathy. The brother, husband or father, 
manly though he be, needs the helpfulness of sympathy and proper 
appreciation more than many imagine. He who battles for the lives 
of his wife and children needs it and welcomes it, though his pride 
prevents him from boldly asking it. 

The wife who gives her husband sympathy, eases his toil, lightens 
his burden and soothes his weary nerves. By this means she may 
be a more important factor in the success of his business than if she 
labored by his side at the desk, in the store or in the field. 

She may prove a greater aid to his mental and moral develop- 
ment, by showing her appreciation of the spirit of his efforts in every 
right cause, than if she were a leader in the public haunts of society. 
Society often fails to appreciate the value of a man because it can 
not stop and discriminate, but the wife or mother who can not take 
time to recognize and strengthen the weak qualities, to encourage 
and fortify the strong ones of her husband or son, falls short of her 
highest gift, her greatest opportunity for helpfulness. 

Half the reward of a man's efforts comes often from the expressed 
appreciation of his wife. 

The just appreciation of Hawthorne's wife gave us The Scarlet 
Letter. 

Cromwell was repeatedly sustained in arduous and trying situa- 
tions by the sympathy and energy of a devoted wife. 

Beecher, Spurgeon, Gladstone and many other eminent men credit 
their success in special fields to the encouragement they received from 
their wives. 

A writer gives us this home picture of Gladstone: ''Mrs. Glad- 
stone was a perfect wife and took in good part the amusement which 
her belief in 'William' as an all-wise and well-nigh infallible autocrat 
occasionally caused. She relieved him of every possible care. She 
vigilantly guarded his health. She tolerated his fads and caprices, 
and to the end of his life retained his unswerving tenderness and 
loyalty. When the old couple in the last years of their blended lives 
went here or there, people observed how gentle and constant were 



AFTER MARRIAGE. 153 

their reciprocal attentions; how indispensable the one seemed to the 
other. In the earlier days, Mrs. Gladstone accompanied her husband 
on his various journeys and listened to all his speeches; was always 
present when he made an address in Parliament, and as he grew old 
she used to make for him, then and there, a drink which smoothed his 
voice and sustained his strength, and with wifely solicitude saw to it 
when he sat down that he put on his overcoat or extra wrap. 

"We often say that great men must have great mothers. A great 
man in this age of competition and unrest needs a great and good 
wife, and this Mrs. Gladstone was. Children and grandchildren live 
(to mourn for her and to carry on the traditions of sincerity, unaffected 
kindness and nobility of character which were her chief distinc- 
tions." 

Every-day Love. " 'I love thee to the level of every day's most 
quiet needs,' writes Mrs. Browning. At first thought that may not 
seem a very fervent protestation of affection, but, after all, it is the 
level, every-day love that alone makes earth a comfortable place to 
dwell in. There are those who would give life, if necessary, to rescue 
dear ones in danger, would spend the last shilling for them if they 
were in need, would overwhelm them with ministrations if they were 
ill, but who take small account of daily needs. The gentle courtesy 
that covers mistakes, the thoughtfulness that so lightens the burdens 
of care, the sweet words of praise that brighten the eye and make the 
tired hands strong again — all these are omitted, and too often fretful- 
ness, carelessness and selfish disregard of feelings and wishes take 
their place. Love is strong as ever and any extraordinary demand 
would show its power, but the extraordinary times are few while. the 
every-day needs are many. Love that would make heroic sacrifices 
for us we seldom require, but the love that comforts and cares and 
gladdens every day is the love that lights the world for us. 

'I never could have regained my feet if it had not been for my 
wife,' said a man who lately passed through deep business misfor- 
tune; 'she was so unceasingly cheerful that she put her heart into me 
when I had none left. If I had not had my home as a haven to turn 
to every night, I believe I would never have lived through it all. ' 
This man had given up a well-appointed house, in which he had lived 
many years, and had taken a smaller one the better suited to his 



154 SOCIAL PURITY. 

reduced income; but the latter was the haven to which he turned 
— a home, because his wife was there." — The Presbyterian. 

In Wendell Phillips' early life his wife took him by the hand as 
he was leaving home on important business, and said: "Wendell, 
don't shilly-shally. " The great reformer and agitator confessed with 
gratitude that that pointed message from his invalid wife had very 
much to do with shaping the course and principle of his life. 

In his Recollections of a Lifetime, General Roeliff Brinkerhoff gives 
a delightful picture of the wifely influence of Mrs. Andrew Jackson. 
He says: "I have often wondered what it was in this diffident, retir- 
ing, uncultured woman which so won all hearts that came under the 
spell of her influence. 

4 'When I went to the Hermitage, Mrs. Jackson had been dead for 
nearly twenty years; yet the aroma of her presence filled the air and 
penetrated every nook and corner of the neighborhood. She domi- 
nated the volcanic nature of her fiery husband as the sun dominates 
the humid vapors of the morning. 

"There never was a moment in Jackson's married life but he would 
have died for her upon the rack or at the stake. Even in death her 
influence ceased not, and at the White House her memory with Jack- 
son was more powerful than congress, cabinets or kings. It con- 
trolled his passions; it curbed his tongue; it held him true to his 
convictions of right and duty. In public and in private life, in the 
White House and at the Hermitage, down to the day of his death, 
President Jackson never retired to rest without taking from his bosom 
the miniature portrait of his wife and placing it in such a position, 
propped up against his Bible, that it should be the last thing seen 
before he went into the land of dreams and the first to greet him with 
the morning light. ' ' 

Over her grave in the little temple in the Hermitage garden is a 
plain marble slab, and upon it is this inscription, written by her hus- 
band: "Here lie the remains of Mrs. Rachel Jackson, wife of Presi- 
dent Jackson, who died the 22nd of December, 1828, aged sixty-one. 
Her face was fair, her person pleasing, her temper amiable, her heart 
kind; she delighted in relieving the wants of her fellow creatures, and 
cultivated that divine pleasure by the most liberal and unpretending 
methods; to the poor she was a benefactor; to the rich an example; to 



AFTER MARRIAGE. 155 

the wretched a comforter; to the prosperous an ornament. Her piety 
went hand in hand with her benevolence, and she thanked her Cre- 
ator for being permitted to do good. A being so gentle and virtuous, 
slander might wound, but not dishonor. Even Death, when he tore 
her from the arms of her husband, could but transport her to the 
bosom of God." 

The seeds of such a life will surely spring up into an abundant 
harvest, and such a service is never lost. 

Mary R. Baldwin thus gives her ideas concerning a wife's relation 
to her husband: 

"There are wives and mothers who spend themselves for the home, 
putting into their efforts time, strength, losing opportunities for 
mental and spiritual development, sacrificing personal appearance, 
all through a blind love driven by the impulse to give of themselves 
wholly. Who does not know such self-effaced women? With their 
absorbing purpose to lay their all upon the altar, they do not call 
forth admiration, often not even respect, for their giving has in it an 
element of slavishness. 

"A young wife who enters upon her marriage career may deter- 
mine her position as soon as she crosses the threshold of her new 
home. If at the start, through a mistaken view of helpfulness she 
begins a course of inefficient self-sacrifice by taking burdens that 
should be shared, wholly upon her own shoulders, insisting upon 
doing herself what a servant should, taking a maid's place, in many 
instances against the wish and will of her husband, through the force 
of the sentiment that makes it so delightful to perform these trifling 
services for him; if she does all of this, with the motive mentioned, 
neglecting as she must at times the holding of personal attractiveness 
and a freshness of spirit needed for the companionship with her hus- 
band for the dinner or the evening hour, she has begun the cheapen- 
ing process. 

"There are wives who do not begin to cheapen themselves by 

foolish sacrifices until they enter the experience of motherhood. 

Indeed, there are instances where they prove themselves tyrants 

through their exactions in their early married career, and upon the 

appearance of a child in the home they lose themselves in the purpose 

of spending themselves for it. 
11 



156 SOCIAL PURITY. 

"A case of this sort is known to the writer. A man of great 
mental possibilities, tender nature and knightly habits, with reference 
to the other sex, married a pretty creature whom he idolized to the 
point of perfection. It became his delight to protect her from care 
and to make her wifehood, as far as possible, a flowery experience. 
In his blind love, he did not notice the spoiling process, neither the 
growing signs of selfishness. He remained under the delusion that 
she was all that his fancy had painted her, until the birth of his first 
child, and then he began to discover something of her nature. 

"She neglected him entirely, gave up herself wholly to the care 
and petting of her baby boy, refused her husband's invitations to 
entertainments, and, when she gave an hour to his society, could talk 
of nothing but things related to her care or love for her child. 

"The years went on, the baby grew to young manhood, and the 
husband and father, who should have reached the prime of his influ- 
ence and effort, was a spent, lonely man, whose purpose had been 
defeated and his mind narrowed, through the disappointments of his 
companionless, loveless life. 

"He came to his death-bed a defeated man, and the wife was left 
to the mercies of the son whom she had spoiled through the selfish- 
ness of her self-sacrifice. Without dignity, with no mental resources 
to suggest ways of employing time, she was a companionless, deso- 
late creature, simply tolerated by the son upon whom she had lavished 
her weak affection and to whom she had been a slave. There are, as 
an offset to this repulsive picture, wives and mothers whose unselfish 
love does not waste itself aimlessly, but gives of its best, compelling 
reverence and gratitude and the glorifying of womanhood. In the 
record of the life of Horace Bushnell there is a passage showing how 
a woman gained and held her exalted place in a husband's estima- 
tion. . . . 'She has been with me in many weaknesses and storms, 
giving strength alike in both; sharp enough to see my faults, faithful 
enough to expose them, and considerate enough to do it wisely; 
shrinking never from loss or blame or shame to be encountered in 
anything right to be done ; adding great and high instigations — insti- 
gations always to good and never to evil mistaken for good; forecast- 
ing always things bravest and best to be done, and supplying inspira- 



AFTER MARRIAGE. 157 

tions enough to have made a hero. ' . . . What more than that could 
one ask for a woman?" 

Dressing for Husband. Dorcas Hicks, in a wise little talk entitled 
Through My Spectacles, says: 

"But I yield now to the desire to make you, my young reader, 
take a peep through my glasses and see what I do. I am looking at a 
young wife, and I remember how for the first six months or year of 
her married life she dressed herself carefully and daintily every day 
to please her husband's admiring eyes. No matter if not another 
person saw her, she must 'look nice for John.' It is ten years now 
since that time, and she is, of course, not quite so fair and fresh as in 
those days; but how is it about her care for her appearance in John's 
sight? Well, it is a rainy afternoon and she is not going out, nor does 
she expect any visitor to drop in — or she is making her toilet with the 
thought that they are without company just now — and she says to 
herself, 'Oh, I need not mind what I put on to-day. I will wear that 
shabby old dress once more. I shall not see anybody but John;' or 
this, 'I need not take my crimps down, or bother with dressing my 
hair particularly; only John will see me.' So she goes down in a 
soiled wrapper, or a dress out at the elbows or split under the arm, 
her hair twisted up into spiral horns, and her slippers flat at the heels, 
to breakfast or dine with 'only John.' There was a time, indeed, 
when John was the one of all others in whose eyes she would look as 
well as she possibly could — 'but then, you know, it is different now.' 
How is it different, my dear? Let me tell you how my spectacles 
show it to me. 

"You are still the one whom John has chosen out of all the world 
of women to be his own, his comfort through his earthly pilgrimage, 
his companion in the journey to a better world. You make or 
unmake his home; you give to it whatever character and color it has; 
you are yourself the 'angel of the house,' in whom all centers, and 
from whom everything radiates. You are all this ; although as the 
days come and go it does not always seem that you do more than 
attend to the marketing, look after the servants, and 'keep house* 
generally. John's home is far more to him than he ever can tell or 
you imagine, and at the end of each ten years it should be better and 
dearer and sweeter than at their beginning. And you make that 



158 SOCIAL PURITY. 

home. Can it, then, be a matter of indifference how you appear day 
after day to John? 

"Perhaps you will say that it is partly John's fault that you have 
grown careless. He seemed to become indifferent to your appearance 
— never noticed whether you were dressed nicely or not — in fact, 
never said anything about your dress, one way or the other. Well, 
if I were talking to John, I might say a word about that; but just now 
I am looking at you and talking to you about John. I dare say you 
began so soon to care very little how you looked when 'only John' 
was around, that he has had nothing pleasant to say concerning your 
dress, therefore said nothing at all. He has probably grown very 
much accustomed now to see you dowdy and frowzy at home and 
hardly notices it. But I happen to know that once in a while some- 
thing suddenly recalls to his mind how pretty and trim you used to 
look when he went to see you in your maiden days; and he thinks 
with a sigh, What a pity it is that women grow old so fast! Then he 
falls to calculating a little; and he realizes that you are now only 
thirty-two, a young woman in years — why, yes — just the age of his 
cousin Fanny, who has not aged one bit apparently, although she has 
had more care, if anything, than you have, because her husband has 
not done quite so well in business as he has. And there's Molly Lee 
— she must be just about the same age; and how pretty and jaunty 
she did look last evening, when he went in to see her brother a minute! 
But here John pulls himself up, like the good, faithful fellow that he 
is, and tells himself that he has no business to be comparing his wife 
with anybody else. So he goes home and accepts you as you are and 
have been for a number of years; and as you are, on the whole, really 
a very good wife to him, he thinks he has nothing to complain of. 

"You do love John very much; and all these years you have kept 
your marriage vow, in letter and in spirit, with utmost faithfulness. 
Nor is it a great thing, perhaps, that these old spectacles of mine 
discover as wanting in your wifely conduct. But I do wish you would 
just try the effect of making yourself outwardly as attractive and win- 
ning, in John's eyes, as you did in those days long ago, when his 
admiration and love were new to you and you thought them well 
worth keeping as well as gaining. It will repay you for a little care 
and pains if, as you grow older and inevitably lose some of the charms 



AFTER MARRIAGE. ' 159 

of youth, you can yet draw his eyes to rest upon you with admiring 
pleasure as he notices your neat and tasteful dress, your tidy and 
prettily arranged hair, and your general care to make yourself attrac- 
tive to him. 

"Try it, my dear. Dress yourself for 'only John' as carefully as 
you would for his friend Brown, for whom you do not really care a 
pin compared to the dear old John, and see if that same John does 
not notice it before long and think that his wife is certainly growing 
young again. And when you come to wear your own spectacles and 
do not need to borrow mine, you may thank me, perhaps, for giving 
you this look through mine at yourself and your John." 

Nagging. A popular story paper which goes into many homes 
had this significant paragraph recently printed by itself where it 
would catch the eye of the reader: "It is no doubt sadly true that-the 
wrecking of the happiness of many a home has had its beginning in a 
lapse of common courtesy toward each other on the part of husband 
and wife. A train of domestic evils is likely to follow a lapse of this 
kind. Among the worst of these are the exasperating fault of 'nag- 
ging' that the wife is likely to fall into, and the habit of speaking 
lightly of his wife and sneering at her on the part of the husband. 

"It would be of incalculable value to every young couple starting 
out in life together to make the firm resolve on the one side never to 
nag or ridicule the husband, and on the other never to sneer at the 
wife. How can the happiness of any household be maintained when 
indifference, roughness of speech and an ignoring of kindly courtesy 
characterize the attitude toward each other of the heads of the family 
circle? 

"It must, in a large proportion of cases, be the woman who sets the 
good example, who takes the initiative in refraining from the trying 
speech, the quick remark, the sharp retort. As to the justice of this 
fact it is of small use to specially take note. Men are impetuous; 
they have the care and support of the family on their hands. Mascu- 
line nerves are not always stronger than feminine ones. Gentleness 
and patience should be two of the chief virtues of the Christian home- 
maker." 

Dr. Livingstone's Tribute to His Wife. "If Dr. Livingstone's 
life was a grand success, it was largely owing to the influence of the 



160 SOCIAL PURITY. 

one whom he designated 'the main spoke in my wheel.' A study of 
the life of the great missionary without a glance at 'the main spoke' 
would be incomplete. Mrs. Livingstone was born with one distin- 
guished name and exchanged it for another. Born the daughter of a 
missionary, the celebrated Robert Moffat, she became the wife of a 
missionary, the still more celebrated David Livingstone. With her 
husband she believed: 'Paradise will make amends for all our priva- 
tions and sorrows here. ' This worthy couple were no strangers to 
hardships. After spending two years at the second missionary sta- 
tion, Dr. Livingstone and his wife made a visit to the scene of their 
former labors. A sentence from a letter written by Livingstone to 
the missionary directors in England will give the readers a picture of 
the sufferings they endured better than any words of mine: 'I can 
bear what other Europeans would consider hunger and thirst without 
any inconvenience, but when we arrived, to hear the old women who 
had seen my wife depart about two years before, exclaiming before 
the door, "Bless me! how lean she is! Has he starved her? Is there 
no food in the country to which she has been?" was more than I could 
well bear.' 

"Mrs. Livingstone, after many years of incessant toil, sailed from 
Cape Town for England, accompanied by the four children. Two 
weeks after the departure of his 'dearest Mary' he writes the loved 
one: 'I see no face now to be compared with that sunburnt one 
which has so often greeted me with its kind looks. ' Four years and 
a half later, after sixteen years' toil for Christ in Africa, Livingstone 
grasped the hand of the possessor of 'that sunburnt face' in South 
Hampton, England, and in the poetic welcome that Mary had pre- 
pared for him one line in the last stanza revealed the fact that some- 
thing akin to the spirit of prophecy rested on her: 

'I may tend you while I'm living, you will watch me when I die.' 

"At a great banquet given to Livingstone in London, on the eve 
of his return to Africa, all eyes rested on him when he expressed his 
purpose in a few simple and hearty words, and wonderful was the 
enthusiasm when, after humorously remarking that it was scarcely 
fair to ask a man to praise his own wife, he declared: 'My wife, who 
has always been the main spoke in my wheel, will accompany me in 



AFTER MARRIAGE. 161 

this expedition, and will be most useful to me. She is familiar with 
the languages of South Africa. She is able to work. She is willing 
to endure, and she well knows that in that country one must put one's 
hand to everything. In the country to which I am about to proceed, 
she knows that at the missionary's station the wife must be the maid- 
of-all-work within, while the husband must be the jack-of-all-trades 
without, and glad am I indeed that I am to be accompanied by my 
guardian angel.' 

"It is April, 1862: By the side of a rude bed, formed of boxes, but 
covered with a soft mattress on which lay his dying wife, sat the 
husband. In those moments of terrible grief he thought of the words 
penned years before by the 'guardian angel:' 'You will watch me 
when I die. ' The end has come. Mrs. Livingstone is dead. Her 
spirit has gone to be with God. The faithful husband! How deep 
his sorrow! How intense his love! What a wealth of affliction there 
is in the utterance: 'Poor Mary lies on Shupanga brae, and beeks 
foment the sun!' Measure, if you can, the heart-throbs in the fol- 
lowing words, and then you can form some estimate of Livingstone's 
love for his 'poor Mary:' 'I wept over her who well deserved many 
tears. I loved her when I married her, and the longer I lived with 
her I loved her the more. ' See the great man! Hear him as he cries 
out: 'God pity the poor children! . . . lam left alone in the world 
by one whom I felt to be a part of myself. . . . Oh, my Mary, my 
Mary! How often we have longed for a quiet home, since you 
and I were cast adrift at Koloberg!' " — North Western Christian 
Advocate. 

Marriage is Sacred, and why should so sacred a thing be 
made the subject of light jests and annoying jokes? It is a serious 
vocation and not a lifetime frolic. They who enter its sacred pre- 
cincts should have a large conception of its meaning and require- 
ments. At one time Dr. John Watson, the eminent Scottish divine, 
reminded a company gathered at a wedding, of the beautiful solemnity 
of the occasion in this wise: "If any person can speak lightly of mar- 
riage he is cursed with an impure frivolity and is a profane person. 
No one ought to be able to think of marriage without a just and ten- 
der awe. It is more than a social partnership; it is the union of two 
souls, a union so intertwined, so spiritual, so irrevocable, that it is the 



162 SOCIAL PURITY. 

very sign and picture of the Heavenly Bridegroom and the bride for 
whom he died. ' ' 

Helen Watterson Moody says of a right-minded young woman: 
"She knows that marriage is a serious question, a steady vocation, 
and that the true wife is one who enters marriage not thinking how 
much she can get out of it, but how much she can put into it. It is 
this larger conception of marriage which makes women dwell by their 
own firesides in sweet content within what is called the 'narrow limits 
of home, ' knowing well that no true home is narrow since it must give 
cover to 'the whole primal mysteries of life-food, raiment and work 
to earn them withal — love and marriage, birth and death, right-doing 
and wrong-doing — all these commonplaces of humanity which are 
most divine because they are most commonplace. ' The way to make 
home a wide place to dwell in is to bring a wide personality to dwell 
in it. Any home is just as wide as the maker and can be no 
wider." 

The Wife a Comrade. When our young woman understands and 
appreciates the admonitions of these thoughtful writers, she will strive 
to keep a steady head and a well-balanced judgment that she may not 
miss the point that one of the most important factors in a thoroughly 
successful marriage is that a wife should possess the faculty of being 
a good comrade to her husband. After the first transports of affec- 
tion have subsided into quietness the importance of this quality will 
manifest itself. It is not exactly an easy matter to say just what 
good comradeship comprises. A writer of note says: "It implies a 
certain identity of tastes, a certain geniality of disposition and a cer- 
tain unselfishness in the habitual point of view. One of the best 
results of the higher education of women is not that it does something 
to fit them for an emergency to earn their own living, but that it 
develops their capacity of bringing the element of comradeship into 
their marriage with men of education ; but graduation from a college 
does not always impart this. The faculty of appreciation and sym- 
pathy by a swift intuition is one of the great endowments of women, 
and it frequently compensates for a lack of technical education. And 
women have an equal right to look for this quality in their husbands. 

A man would do well to neglect some rather important matters 
rather than to let his wife miss this quality in him. We have been 



AFTER MARRIAGE. 163 

led to these observations by reviewing the life of the wife of Lord 
Salisbury. 

The two began life together in poverty. He had to earn his living 
by writing for the newspapers and reviews. Lady Salisbury had the 
fine gift of comradeship. Those who knew them well said that the 
successes of one were the triumphs of both, and when he succeeded 
to Hatfield and the premiership, he had no more trusty counselor or 
loyal coadjutor than his own wife. 

The following is a description of Mrs. Stevenson, the beloved wife 
of the famous man of letters: "She has had a varied life, some of it 
under conditions which would have sorely tried most women. But she 
was equal to all emergencies and superior to all occasions. We are told 
that she was equally at home upon a well-appointed yacht or upon a 
'cockroach steamer, ' beguiling the time with infinite resources when 
the ship lay becalmed, undismayed by tempests and sudden squalls; 
and whether upon a lonely atoll or under the palms in an island village, 
she would set up her household gods and make each spot a home. 

She has begun more than one voyage as an unwelcome passenger. 
The captain and crew wanted 'no fine ladies' aboard. There was 
'no accommodation for ladies.' In short, they were afraid of having 
to wear their company manners every day. But invariably the end 
of the voyage found every man on board, from the captain to the 
Chinese cook, her devoted friend and servant. 

Her courage in an emergency, her uncomplaining fortitude in the 
matter of rats and cockroaches, her calm acceptance of South Sea 
customs, called forth enthusiastic approval. 

She could cook like a French chef % bind up a wound as well as a 
surgeon, devise sports and invent games, and had invaluable remedies 
stored away in a little old medicine-chest. She looked after the 
health and comfort of the wild-mannered native sailors as kindly and 
unaffectedly as she taught Ah Foo to make bread, with cocoanut 
toddy for yeast, or drew out the reticent captain or shy mate to talk 
of his home and family. 

A half-caste sailor once said: 'Mr. Stevenson is good to me like 
my father and his wife is the same kind of man. ' 

King Tembinoke said of her: 'She good; look pretty; plenty 
chencli* (sense). 



164 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Perhaps they both meant what Mr. Edmund Gosse so well 
expressed when he wrote of her as 'dark and rich-hearted, like some 
wonderful red-wine jewel. ' 

But her husband caps all praise to her in some stanzas ending: 

'Teacher, tender comrade, wife, 
A f ellow-f arer true through lif e, 
Heart-whole and soul-free, 
The august Father 
Gave to me.' " 

Wife, or Mother— Which? "The truth is that some women are 
mothers and some wives; very few are both." 

The listeners to this declaration sat still, looking at the speaker 
and at one another. 

There was assent in the faces, though there was no sound of the 
voices. 

"Is it not true," continued the first speaker, "that a baby, when it 
comes, makes almost every woman all mother? She lives, moves and 
has her being for that baby. The house is run for the baby; she 
dresses for the baby. Baby rules her every moment. She too often 
ceases to be even a housekeeper. ' ' 

"Well," asked a soft voice, "should she not be a mother before 
anything else?" 

"No," was the emphatic response. "She should be a wife first 
and a mother second." 

"Now, we can not settle this question, or rather you two can only 
settle your own opinions more firmly, and that's not necessary," 
laughed the third member of the party. "The important point is, Is 
it true?" 

Is it true? Are there not homes where the husband finds that his 
place is filled by the first baby, and each following pushes him more 
and more into the background? He is expected to submit to the 
usurpation without comment. He finds that the every thought of his 
wife is for the baby, whose small wants, it would seem, might be 
supplied and his health and happiness maintained, without absorbing 
so large a part of the wife's care and attention. 

Is it true, as is sometimes asserted, that husbands are often jeal- 



AFTER MARRIAGE. 165 

ous of their own children? If it is true, does it not follow that there 
is cause; that the husband, in whom, perhaps, there is more of the 
lover than the father, needs always the companionship of the woman 
he loves; that because he loves her, he is not willing that she should 
become simply the mother of his children? 

A man commenting on a wife and mother, who had a remarkable 
husband and remarkable children, but of whom you always thought 
first as the wife of her husband, said: 

"That woman has the art of being a wife. Her children never 
drove her husband out of her mind for a moment; he has always been 
first. How many women ever stand in their own home as she does? 
She is first in their hearts, their thoughts. She is the center from 
which all draw their inspiration, or think they do. Why? Because 
she has kept her place first as the wife of her husband. Those chil- 
dren saw their father first in their mother's thought, their mother first 
in their father's thought. They learned always that this love was the 
first and the love for the children the second love. The house was 
run for the family; but if one person must take precedence, it was the 
father, because his place and work were of first importance to his 
home and the world. The children are well-mannered, because they 
never for a moment suppose themselves of the first importance. 
They were allowed to choose, collectively or individually, where 
choice affected them only. Their education was of great importance 
to the parents, and the children understood this. Never, in that 
home, was any important decision affecting the life of a child the 
decision of one parent. Nor was discipline the law of one. The 
parents consulted when the act of the child demanded it." 

It is this unity of thought and common interest that makes family 
life perfect. 

The greatest blunder a woman can make is to thrust her husband 
in the background of her thought, or give him a second place in the 
home, or permit him to take the attitude that the children are hers. 
The wise woman, without contention, compels recognition of the 
fact that the children are theirs and that the children's best interest 
can be served only when the moral intelligence of father and mother 
is directing their training. 

The woman who has the art of being a wife has usually the fine 



166 SOCIAL PURITY. 

art of motherhood. The wife who is first, last and always a mother 
is neither wife nor mother to perfection. — The Outlook. 

Judicious "Letting Alone." "Tell me," I said to one of the most 
charming women I know, who seems to have made a wonderful suc- 
cess of her ten years of married life, "how you manage to do every- 
thing so easily, and to do so much more than other people and to 
make every one around you comfortable and happy?" 

She blushed at my praise as she answered: "I am so glad to hear 
you say that, for if I am successful now, I have had to buy my knowl- 
edge with some bitter experience. You know what a nervous man my 
husband is. How could he be otherwise, with the strain he is under 
in his professional life, when from the beginning he had to do every- 
thing for himself and make his way by hard work and struggle? 
Well, when we were engaged I didn't understand him at all. People 
may say what they please about the engagement being the happiest 
time of one's life; I argue it isn't. I was always worrying John with 
little exactions, demanding of him reasons for this and that, interfer- 
ing with him and not respecting his time or his individuality. For- 
tunately for me, his love stood the test of my tactlessness during our 
engagement and the first year or so of our married life, but his health 
didn't. He was nervous and restless, poor thing! He had so little 
rest or freedom with me. Then Dorothy came, and during those 
early peaceful weeks of her life, when I had time to think, I began to 
see things in their true light, and I made a few resolutions that I have 
tried hard to keep ever since. Certainly things have been happier 
since I determined to 'let John alone.' " 

I waited for her to go on and watched the pretty little wifely light 
in her eyes. 

"I don't think there could ever be a real difference of opinion 
between John and me on the big things of life, but one doesn't have 
to confront big things very often, and it is in the little things that 
the rub is apt to come, and where a wife can worry her husband to 
death unconsciously by her pettiness. Well, this was the result of my 
resolutions: I try not to interfere in any way with John's business, 
not to demur when he is obliged to go away often and to be often late 
at meals, and not to ask him why, frettingly, when he finally makes 
his appearance, but to wait until he chooses to tell me. When he 



AFTER MARRIAGE. 167 

wants to sit up late, as he does night after night, reading or writing, 
when I feel he is not prudent, according to my standpoint, I make 
myself keep quiet and not nag him with advice to go to bed, and I try 
not to worry him about his particular economies and extravagances. 
Very often he does what seems to me foolish and unnecessary, but I 
have learned to respect his judgment enough to give him the benefit 
of the doubt, or, at any rate, to keep from telling him my opinion 
when it is not asked. I also have learned never to ask him to do 
errands down-town, or take any time from his business for me; and, 
more than all, I try never to worry him with any of the tiresome 
domestic problems that are continually arising." 

"Wise little woman," I murmured, thinking of the many men who 
come home from a wearying day down-town to find a wife who is 
waiting to pour out a tale of woe of the (fey's grievances, which are 
exaggerated as they are related; and yet these same wives would feel 
it hard if they had to listen night after night to the recital of their 
husband's business troubles and be shown his incapacity to manage 
his business as they show their lack of ability to regulate theirs. 
"Yes, it works well in many ways," she went on, "for on his side 
John shows the same respect for me. At the beginning of each 
month he puts a sum of money into the bank in my name for all 
household expenses. I never have to account to him for a cent of it; 
he never questions the wisdom of any change I choose to make in my 
menage; in fact, he leaves me alone in my domain as absolutely as I 
do him. Consequently, when we are together, we always talk about 
things outside of the house, of interests that are educating, and we 
are very good company to each other, I assure you." 

No one could doubt it who saw them together and no one could 
question she had discovered some royal road to harmonious living. 
She is over thirty years old and she is always taken for about twenty- 
one. She has several children, the dearest babies in the world, and 
she is a very up-to-date mother, belonging to kindergarten classes and 
personally supervising all that her little people do. She is active in 
the affairs of the world and in charity, and everywhere she is famous 
for her quiet charm and the interest and help she gives to every one 
she meets. And the husband? The other day he went back to a col- 
lege dinner, and after it I was told that all the men present declared 



168 SOCIAL PURITY. 

that he did not look a day older than when he graduated, twelve years 
before. 

4 'I try to carry out the same idea with the servants and children," 
Eleanor continued presently, "and when I think how little trouble I 
have, I am amazed at all that I hear and read about. I could count 
on my two hands the times I have changed servants in ten years, even 
with the four I always keep. To be sure, when I do make a change, 
I take 'infinite pains' to get some one who shall be worthy of the 
responsibility I give. Then I show him or her a written list of the 
hours for the work during the day, what seems to me the best arrange- 
ment, but I say that I am ready to listen to any suggestion or of any 
improvement after a trial of my way. At the end of a week we may 
together rearrange the order, but after that it is seldom that I ever 
have to speak to a servant or give a direction. I let them absolutely 
alone, only referring to the schedule if there is any fault to find. 
With the children, too, I try to respect their freedom and not to inter- 
fere in any legitimate fancy or folly they may have. Outside of the 
established rules they are free to do as they please with their own 
time, and I think they are very happy children and singularly free 
from any nervousness. ' ' 

"And, best of all, you are a happy woman, too." I continued. 
"Would that others could learn the wisdom of 'letting alone!' " — 
Harper s Bazar. 

How to Manage a Husband. 

"To manage a husband, 
A good way, I ween, 
Is to keep the home tidy, 
And cheerful and clean. 

Let us deal with him, too, 

As a man, not a mouse, 
And so may the 'house-band' 

Be bound to the house. 

Let him use your ideas, 

And be proud of his plan, 
And so manage to manage 

The 'managing man.* " 

A clever writer in the Philadelphia North American discusses this 
important subject in the following little story: 



AFTER MARRIAGE. 169 

"Yesterday I dropped in at a bride's cute little home to sip a cup of 
tea. The poor little creature had evidently had a slight difference 
with her 'hubby' before he left in the morning, for she seemed a 
wee bit unhappy. It was not long before a young matron entered 
and made a third to the party. This particular matron has a great 
reputation for managing her spouse, and was just the person the 
'bridey' needed. She commenced at once, and this was the conver- 
sation: 

'My dear, is your husband ever cross?' 

'What a funny question. He is never anything else.' 

'How in the world do you manage him?' 

'I don't try. I just let him alone.' 

'But how do you make up?' 

'We don't. He is always as cross as two sticks at breakfast. 
They say most men are. He gets off a lot of sarcastic things about 
women attending to their households, club women, and so forth, and 
then he goes away mad. ' 

' 'Oh, dear me, you poor thing! And yet Tom told me this morn- 
ing you were so congenial and so well suited to each other. ' 

' 'So we are. When Harold comes home in the evening he hands 
me a little package and says he hopes it will please me. I tell him 
he is too good, and that I wish all women had as good a husband as 
mine. Then I see what he is giving me. Sometimes it's a lovely 
belt or a new chatelaine or a fancy scarf or something of that kind, 
and I give him a kiss and ask him to forgive me for being cross in 
the morning. ' 

"The little hostess looked dazed and went on sipping her Russian 
tea in profound silence. Finally she broke out: 

' 'And yet you deliberately told me you did not manage him.' " 
The trials and vicissitudes of life borne together strengthen love, 
and not even death shall separate those that love through life. 

"And in that perfect marriage day- 
All earth's lost love shall live once more; 

All lack and loss shall pass away, 
And all find all not found before; 

Till all the worlds shall live and glow 

In that great love's great overflow." 



170 SOCIAL PURITY. 

What Makes a Home? In an address before the national council 
of the women of Canada, at Toronto, recently, Lady Aberdeen said: 

"What is that indefinable something that makes a home; that 
reveals itself in the books and pictures, in the arrangement of the 
rooms, in the preparation for a guest, in the tones of the children, in 
the expression of husband and wife? We can not describe it, but we 
recognize it at once when it is present, and no house can be truly a 
home without some measure of it. 

"We do not need just houses where we can eat and sleep healthily, 
but we want homes full of rest and peace and beauty and refresh- 
ment. Full of power, therefore, to send out men and women inspired 
with the spirit and devotion to all that is true and beautiful to serve 
their day and generation. 

"And what sort of women do we want, then, to make such homes? 
There must be practical knowledge first, and it must be gained 
somehow — either by training or through dearly bought experience, 
through failures — knowledge which will secure to the inmates of that 
house of all ages, those essentials of light and air and comfort and 
good food and healthful surroundings which are the first requisite for 
all human life which is to attain its full development. But beyond 
and above this knowledge there must be knowledge of how to make 
the home pleasing to the eye; knowledge how to make common things 
and common life beautiful — self-control, power of organization, unself- 
ishness, insight into character and ever ready sympathy with all. All 
these qualities, then, and much more, does the home-maker require." 

It Takes a Woman to Make a Home. A Chinese proverb says: 
"A hundred men may make an encampment, but it takes a woman to 
make a home. " It is she who builds and consecrates that most pre- 
cious spot on this side of heaven, which we express in the sweet word 
"home." Not walls or furniture or windows or curtains, but that 
nameless and ineffable charm which glorifies the lowliest hut, which 
fills with heaven's own radiance the humblest cottage and without 
which the palace, floored with marble and glowing with wealth and 
luxury, is but a decorated prison. At home you are beloved; you are 
understood ; there your errors will ever meet with gentlest forgiveness ; 
there your troubles will be smoothed away; there you may unburden 
your soul, fearless of harsh, unsympathetic ears; and there you may 



r * 




X" 



PURITY. 




Copyright, 1903, by J. A. Hertel. 

Age 60. Age 23. 

ILL-MATED IN AGE AND DISPOSITION. 



AFTER MARRIAGE. 171 

be entirely and joyfully yourself. What ambition can be more 
sacred, what thought more sweet, to a true woman than to be the 
ministering angel of this sacred spot? — North Western Christian 
Advocate. 

Another writer says: "No kind of labor is degrading if done from 
a worthy motive, and no motive can be nobler than the womanly desire 
to make a pleasant home. With this end in view — with love as a 
prompter, washing and darning and scrubbing are all elevated from 
drudgery to a nobler sphere. But our homes can not be properly 
attractive and profitable to our families if we ourselves are dull and 
harassed. Our brothers and fathers and husbands and sons need 
cheerful and intelligent companions at home far more than they need 
nice dinners and spotless linen. It is necessary that good homemakers 
and keepers should read and reflect and listen and converse." 

And again: "Let us take time for reading. It will never come if 
we wait to have every piece of work finished and every speck of dirt 
removed from each article we use. We can always find something 
else to do, and conscientious housekeepers, with little taste for mental 
pursuits, are apt to make a great blunder. 'The life is more than meat 
and the body than raiment,' which means — if I may be allowed to 
preach a wee bit of a sermon — that you yourself, with all your immortal 
faculties, are of vastly more importance than your house and furni- 
ture and clothing and cookery; and these are utterly worthless if they 
serve as hindrances instead of helps to your individual human cul- 
ture. ' ' What one critic says about 

The Well-read Wife in the Home: "It is exceedingly interesting 
and ofttimes amusing to read the many articles written on the progress 
of woman or the new woman, as writers are pleased to term her. 
And what do we read? 

At one time we hear that she is a bold, heartless creature, willing 
to assume men's apparel and rob them of their positions. Do the 
poor, dear men tremble in their shoes and meekly give up their posi- 
tions to this bold-faced creature? Or do they say she has a right to 
that position providing she can perform the duties better than they? 

At another time we see the new woman pictured as full of fads, 

neglecting all her home duties, spending her time writing papers on 

woman's rights and utterly distracting her husband. Now, in truth, 
12 



172 SOCIAL PURITY. 

the progressive woman is neither of these awful beings. She is, in 
the first place, a womanly woman, and neither cares to assume men's 
apparel or rob them of their positions, nor to neglect her home. She 
is but wide awake to the questions about her and eager to keep step 
with the times. She need not be bold in this. These are stirring 
times, and grave problems are occupying the minds of our best 
thinkers. Why, then, should not the women interest themselves in 
the affairs which must mean a great deal to them as well as to their 
husbands? This progressive woman has a mind; has she not a right 
to exercise it? Her intellect is as keen to catch the gist of public 
affairs as a man's, and is it not right for her to think actively, even 
though she may not act? If you would have her be a companion for 
her husband, she must be able to enter into the things which interest 
him, and because she does that, don't think that she wants to hold 
the reins of government. She is wise enough to know that she is 
"the power behind the throne," and she prefers to be that rather 
than a puppet on the throne. 

So this progressive woman stands to-day for the highest education, 
for broad socialistic ideas — for what God intended her, a true wife 
and wise mother. 

Disposition, temper and manner enter quite as much into the 
making or marring of home as do capability, skill and management. 
No woman has properly considered the art or genius of true home- 
making who has failed to resolve that certain things must be avoided 
in order that peace and good-will may reign throughout the family. 
There is always a foundation principle, a basal resolve that must 
govern and permeate the words and actions of those who constitute 
the heads of the family, without which there will be sad scenes and 
sad days such as no judicious wife or mother could think of without 
stinging and bitter regret. First and foremost, then, in the home let 
husband and wife, and especially those who are parents, guard their 
manner, attitude and words toward each other. This is starting at 
the right point. ' ' 

"Home, Sweet Home." It is not always the husband that brings 
home a keg of molasses or a barrel of sugar that makes home sweet. 

Some persons seem to feel that, when the necessities of the family 
are provided for, their duty is completed, forgetting that "Better is a 



AFTER MARRIAGE. 173 

dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred there- 
with." "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of 
silver." Many are afraid to show themselves "kindly affectioned one 
toward another. " They shrink from the possibility of being called 
"soft;" but we are told by the best authority that "A soft answer 
turneth away wrath. ' ' 

Let love at home always stand with her arms over us, to help lift 
the burdens that otherwise would weigh us down. Love lights a lamp 
that glows on when all might be shrouded in gloom. Love, sweet 
angel, strengthens the weary and steadies the hand that carries cor- 
dial to the sufferer's lips. 

"Time will softly, sw etly glide, 
When there's love at home." 

Admit and keep love as a member of your household. 

Never, for one moment, think that your doing is unimportant, 
even if much of your time is passed in the kitchen. The noblest and 
the wisest live by eating, non-poetic and common as it may seem. 
Think, tired housewife, not how your piano-trained fingers are becom- 
ing stiff, awkward and flushed from molding the "staff of life," but 
consider what the members of your "sweet home" are accomplishing. 
For instance, the husband is, perhaps, a minister of the gospel, win- 
ning souls to Jesus. Your son is taking high rank in college, and 
your lovely daughter is to go as a missionary, and all of them derive 
strength of mind, frame and muscle from "mother's table." Are you 
not doing something indispensable? Your kitchen effort helps run all 
the machinery of life. What would become of "home, sweet home" 
if, in discouragement, the mothers and home girls ceased their doing? 
Out of well-kept homes come the noblest of our land. — North Western 
Christian Advocate. 

Edward Bok says that, it is a common remark with hundreds of 
men that they wonder "what women find to do all day. " Sometimes 
curiosity gets the better of a man, and he asks his wife, what she has 
done all day. "Oh, a hundred and one little things," she says. Then 
he thinks of some momentous scheme over which he has been working 
all day, and makes a mental comparison, in which his wife's work takes 
second place. He overlooks the fact, however, that a woman's life in 



174 SOCIAL PURITY. 

the home is made up of "little things," and that these same "little 
things" are not only necessary, but that they are absolutely vital to 
the even adjustment of the domestic machinery of his home. They 
are " little" only in a woman's eye; they would instantly assume pro- 
portions of magnitude if the man's hands were to try to do them. 

Who Has the Most to Do? Count Tolstoi relates the folio wing- 
story: A Russian peasant and his wife, after an earnest discussion of 
the question which of them had the more and harder work to do, agreed 
to exchange tasks for a day. The woman went to the field to plow and 
the man stayed at home to do the housework. 

"Now, mind," said the wife, as she started out, "turn the cows 
and sheep out to pasture at just the right time, and feed the little 
chickens and look out that they don't wander, and have the dinner 
ready when I come back; mix up some pancakes and fry them, and 
don't forget to churn the butter. But, above all, don't forget to beat 
the millet." 

The peasant had so much trouble in getting the cattle and sheep 
out that it was late when he thought of the chickens; and in order 
that the little chickens might not wander, he tied them all together by 
the legs with a string and then fastened the string to the old hen's leg. 

He had noticed that while his wife was beating the millet, she 
often kneaded her pastry at the same time. So he went to work to 
do these things together; and, as he had to shake himself a great deal 
to do it, he saw an excellent chance to get the butter churned at the 
same time, by tying the cream-jar to his belt. 

"By the time the millet is pounded," he said, "the butter will 
have come." 

He had hardly begun this triple task when he heard the old hen 
squawking and the chickens peeping. He started on a run to see 
what was the matter, but tripped on the edge of a flagstone, fell and 
broke the cream-jar to pieces. 

In the yard he found that a prodigious hawk had seized one of the 
chickens and was flying off with it; and as the chickens and their 
mother were all tied on one string, the hawk made off with them all. 
While he was out in the yard the pig came in, tipped over the bread- 
tray and spilled the batter, which the animal immediately began to 
devour. 



AFTER MARRIAGE. 175 

While the peasant was looking on in astonishment, another pig 
came in and began rooting among the millet. 

Then, while the peasant was clearing things up as best he could, 
the fire went out. He had not succeeded in rekindling it when his 
wife entered the yard with the horse. 

"Why," she said, "where are the chickens — and the hen?" 

"A hawk carried them off. I had tied them together, so they 
wouldn't wander away, and the hawk carried off the whole lot." 

"Well, is dinner ready?" 

"Dinner? How could I have dinner when there isn't any fire?" 

"Did you churn the butter?" 

"No; I was churning it, but I fell and dropped the jar and broke 
it and the dog ate up the cream!" 

"But what is all this batter that I see on the floor?" 

"Those miserable pigs did that!" 

"Well, you have had a hard time!" said the wife. "As for me, 
I've got the field all plowed and I'm back home early." 

"Oh, yes," exclaimed the husband, bitterly, "you've had only one 
single thing to do, while, as for me, I've had everything to do at the 
same time — get this thing ready, take care of that and think of every- 
thing! How in the world was I to do it?" 

"Well," said she, "that's what I do every day. Now I guess 
you'll admit that a woman has something to do!" 

Keeping Up Appearances. "None of us are without struggles, but, 
perhaps, those which attend our trying to keep up an appearance on 
a little money are, at times, the severest. Under such circumstances 
it is a hard struggle to exercise judgment without some bitter wounds 
to personal pride; yet, if we would only pause a moment and consider 
that those for whose flattery or emulation we are struggling are hardly 
worth our embarrassing efforts therefor — or that we in reality occupy 
much less of their passing thoughts than we foolishly imagine, we 
might suffer less. If one is poor or financially limited, all extravagant 
aims to hide such a condition are extremely foolish. Our rich friends 
can not reasonably expect us to cope with them in matters of living, 
attire or social entertainment, and we can enjoy their benefactions 
quite as much without straining our wits or purse strings to recipro- 
cate the same, 



176 SOCIAL PURITY. 

"The mask of wealth is a foolish cover for any face to try to 
assume, because it usually is a very transparent one and at any 
moment liable to be removed, to the wearer's demoralization. 
Admitting that we are all naturally averse to betraying our straitened 
financial conditions, we invite still more embarrassments by assuming 
wealth or anything else we do not possess. Besides, there is no 
material loss sustained in being deserted by alleged friends to whose 
society money alone is a passport. Let us be whatever we are, hon- 
orably and uprightly, and avoid all foolish pretensions that may 
eventually prove but pitfalls for our unwary feet." — Great Thoughts. 

Simpler Living. ''Moralists and philosophers are constantly tell- 
ing the world that the best elements of human happiness are the 
simplest and most frugal. There is a constant cry for simplicity of 
living, but some of those who make this cry are unable to adapt their 
own lives to their own beliefs. We believe in the beauty and good 
sense of simple living just as we believe in the highest and best prin- 
ciples of religion, but the weakness of our human nature is so great 
that we do not live according to that which we know to be wisest 
and best. It is not strange that there should be a cry for simplicity 
in an age when it is manifest that a great deal of the unrest and the 
unhappiness of domestic life are due to too elaborate and expensive 
living. 

"Too many people have not the moral courage to set up a standard 
of their own based upon their own incomes and their own positions 
in life. Mrs. A. has not the moral courage to put a straw matting 
on her floor when she knows that Mrs. B. has a Wilton velvet on her 
floor. Mrs. D. has not the moral courage to serve simple refresh- 
ments at her entertainments when she knows that Mrs. C. serves ices 
and all sorts of expensive and unnecessary luxuries at her 'at homes.' 
The Smiths, with an income of $2,000 a year and one servant, make a 
strenuous effort to ape the style of living of the Whites, who have 
$8,000 a year and three servants. The wife of the clerk tries to 
imitate the wife of her husband's employer. It is an age of vulgar 
and unwise imitation. The writer overheard a significant bit of con- 
versation between two women on the street-car not long ago. One 
said to the other: 

M % am going to get some lace curtains for my parlor tp-day, 



AFTER MARRIAGE. 177 

Have you noticed the Bartons' new lace draperies? Well, I told my 
husband that if the Bartons could have lace curtains in their parlor, 
there was no reason why we shouldn't have them, for my husband 
has as good pay as Tom Barton. ' 

'You are just right,' said the other woman. 'I told my husband 
to-day that if Tom Barton's wife could wear a silk-lined dress, I 
couldn't see why I should not have my next dress lined with silk, and 
I'm going to have it so, you see if I do not.' 

4 'And it was but yesterday that we heard a woman say: 'If I could 
entertain as my friends entertain, I would love to do so; but I can 
not do it, and so I simply do not try to entertain at all. ' 

"Now, what connection is there between the spirit of true hospi- 
tality and elaborate entertaining? The fact is, that the over-elaborate 
method of entertaining in vogue at present is killing that beautiful 
spirit of true hospitality that prevailed at one time. Elaborate living, 
elaborate dressing, elaborate entertaining are destroying the happi- 
ness of many American homes. There are homes in which the whole 
end and aim of life would seem to be the accumulation of fine furni- 
ture and bric-a-brac, the care of which imposes a great burden on the 
mistress of the home and the expense of which makes a mighty inroad 
in the family income. There are other homes in which the elaborate- 
ness of the table is the family weakness. The money expended for 
unnecessary and positively injurious food in such homes would give a 
college education to the children, who are not thus educated because 
their parents "can not afford" to send them to college. All forms of 
elaborate living impose an unnecessary burden on both fathers and 
mothers and destroy the peace and harmony of true home life. Many 
homes have been wrecked by a constant striving for the unattainable 
in the style of living. We saw one day a red flag floating from the 
piazza of a home that had been thus wrecked. A young couple had 
started out in life under an utterly false standard. It was a standard 
based not on their own incomes, but on the incomes of others. They 
adopted a style of living that involved them in debt, and they had 
neither the courage nor the sense to retrench when they saw the inev- 
itable result of their folly if it was continued. 

"The remedy for all this wrong living lies largely with the women 
of the home. There will not be simplicity in home life until the 



178 SOCIAL PURITY. 

wives and mothers declare that such simplicity shall reign in their 
homes. Women, far more than men, set the pace for the social 
world. Women, far more than men, fix the standard of home life. 
It is true that 

'The hand that rocks the cradle 

Is the hand that rules the world.* 

It is true that if there is ever a revolution in the world of dress and 
fashion, a revolution in the laws governing the home life of the day, that 
revolution must be wrought by the women of the world." — Selected. 

One writer comments thus on 

The Abuse of a Social Custom. "When one's real friends get 
married, or celebrate a birthday or a wedding anniversary, it is a nat- 
ural desire to want to mark the date with a souvenir or gift. True 
regard prompts the giving of something which will cause the recipi- 
ent a pleasure. Such gifts are accompanied by genuine good wishes. 

"Alas for the solicited gift, wrung from a donor who gives in 
response to an invitation to a wedding or social anniversary because 
gifts are in order! Alas, that gifts are ever made by those who give 
reluctantly, and to recipients who prize them for their value or utility! 

"A popular young man, boarding in a home-like boarding-house in 
a western city, found on the breakfast table an invitation. 

" 'Wedding cards,' some one suggested. 

" 'It means five dollars.' 

" 'One of your friends?' 

" 'No, oh, no! I am slightly acquainted with the bride-to-be. I 
go out with Aunt Reba's girls; I gave two or three nice presents to 
Kate's friends when they were married; my taste was admired, and 
since then there has been no lack of invitations to weddings. I have 
reduced my price, seldom pay more than five dollars, and am likely 
to buy yet cheaper gifts of necessity. A fellow shouldn't be miserly. 
I like to go out and meet pleasant people, and benefits shouldn't be 
all one way, but my salary hasn't been increased and expenses do 
increase. Father and mother need my aid now, and Brother Jim's 
books and board must be paid for; I mean the boy shall have the 
education I didn't get. I do not use tobacco or drinks. * If the call 
{or presents wasn't so frequent, I wouldn't mind as I do. n 

** 'Jt is the bargaining spirit in a girl that is so distasteful to me, 



AFTER MARRIAGE. 179 

I can't admire the swell wedding if I know the display is a severe 
strain on finances, and the wedding presents are all on display, their 
cost discussed. A common bank-teller realizes he is out of place 
when display is the principal feature of a wedding. ' 

"While calling at a home newly purchased and fitted, a box of 
sweet and beautifully arranged flowers came from a florist's. 

'The flowers only cost twenty-five cents, and I bought them to 
send to a lady who is celebrating her husband's birthday and making 
it known that the invited guests may select china for souvenirs. She 
has a new china-closet, and desires to fill it with pretty china. The 
fruit and cream served costs her little, as it comes from her mother's 
farm. I shall send flowers and my regrets, as I have another engage- 
ment. We are paying for our home by monthly payments. I resolved 
to be honest, and defy popular custom by sending these flowers when 
a pretty china article is solicited. Why not consult purse and con- 
venience when presents are boldly solicited?' " 

Says Helen Hunt: "The most perfect little home I ever saw was 
a little house into the sweet incense of whose fires went no costly 
things. A thousand dollars served as a year's living for father, mother 
and three children. But the mother was the creator of a home; her 
relations with the children were the most beautiful I have ever seen; 
every inmate of the house involuntarily looked into her face for the 
keynote of the day, and it always rung clear. From the rosebud or 
clover-leaf, which in spite of her hard housework she always found 
time to put beside our plates at breakfast, down to the story she had 
on hand to read in the evening, there was no intermission of her influ- 
ence. She has always been and always will be my ideal of a mother, 
wife and homemaker. If to her quick brain, loving heart and 
exquisite face had been added the appliances of wealth and enlarge- 
ments of wide culture, hers would have been absolutely the ideal 
home. As it was, it was the best I have ever seen. ' ' 

Secret of a Long Life. You sometimes see a woman whose old 
age is as exquisite as was the perfect ' bloom of her youth. You 
wonder how this has come about. You wonder how it is her life has 
been a long and happy one. Here are some of the reasons: 

She knew how to forget disagreeable things. 

She kept her nerves, well in hand and inflicted them on no one, 



180 SOCIAL PURITY. 

She mastered the art of saying pleasant things. 

She did not expect too much from her friends. 

She made whatever work came to her congenial. 

She retained her illusions and did not believe all the world wicked 
and unkind. 

She relieved the miserable and sympathized with the sorrowful. 

She never forgot that kind words and a smile cost nothing, but are 
priceless treasures to the discouraged. 

She did unto others as she would be done by, and now that old age 
has come to her and there is a halo of white hair about her head, she 
is loved and considered. This is the secret of a long life and a happy 
one. 

Tribute to Mothers. We have shown the young girl budding into 
womanhood; we have seen her at her best as bride and wife, but there 
is another phase in the process of development which merits special 
mention. A daring Jewish proverb says: "God could not be every- 
where, and so he made mothers." 

Nowhere in God's great earth is there a more beautiful picture than 
that of a young mother and her innocent, trusting babe. In the midst 
of life's battles the memory goes back to the hymns that were crooned 
over our cradles, to the prayers that were learned at mother's knee, 
and to the kindly kiss of comfort that was given when she care- 
fully tucked us in for the night. These are visions which, per- 
haps, we hide from the world about us, but they are none the less 
cherished, ^ _ 

* Mothers of Great Men. ' ' Great mothers make great men, ' ' and 
the great-hearted Ruskin says of his mother, who taught him the 
Scriptures: '"She established my soul in life, and I regard her teach- 
ings, the most precious, and, on the whole, the one essential part of 
my 4 education."^ The poet Cowper's mother died when he was 
scarcely, six years old, and fifty years later he still wept her loss. 
Johnson^wrote his most famous work to pay the funeral expenses of 
her whom he calls "the best mother, and, I believe, the best woman in 
the world." - y .ife<*!tW, 

The brilliant Alexander Pope, with a touch of pathos not found 
§J§ewher§ m W§ writings, says; 



AFTER MARRIAGE. 181 

"Me let the tender office long engage 
To rock the cradle of declining age, 
With lenient arts extend a mother's breath, 
Make languor smile, and smooth the bed of death; 
Explore the thought, explain the asking eyes, 
And keep awhile one parent from the skies." 

The mother of Scott was a superior woman, a lover of poetry and 
art, and he acknowledges her potency in his word-paintings with 
becoming gratitude. 

John Randolph was saved from the clutches of infidelity by a little 
prayer which his saintly mother taught him when a child. 

Booker T. Washington, the eloquent colored orator, says of his 
slave mother: "She, to me, will always remain the noblest embodi- 
ment of womanhood with whom I have come in contact. She was 
wholly ignorant, as far as books were concerned, and, I presume, 
never had a book in her hands for two minutes at a time. But the 
lessons in virtue and thrift, which she instilled into me during the 
short period of my life that she lived, will never leave me." 

Byron's mother was talented, and her son is called a great poet 
by an admiring world. 

Napoleon's mother was noted for her energy and courage, and gave 
to Europe a mighty warrior. 

The mother of the Wesleys was a woman strong in intelligence, 
piety and executive ability, and her sons, John and Charles, are 
revered wherever Methodism is known. 

Washington's integrity and self-command are due to his mother's 
Spartan-like firmness and simplicity. 

The tender-hearted statesman, Abraham Lincoln, said of his 
mother: "All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." 

Benjamin West said: "The kiss of my mother made me a painter," 
while Garfield paid the public tribute of a kiss to his mother's self- 
sacrifice and devotion. 

John Paul Richter was upheld by the devoted conscientiousness of 
his mother, who entered into his every trial and sorrow, who shared 
his every adversity. The pastor's widow and her boy lived for each 
other. He sat by her wheel and wrote wonderful pages which the 
publishers continued to reject, With all her industry, four shillings 



182 SOCIAL PURITY. 

a month was all the mother could earn; and when her boy's writings 
were refused, they wept together over the spinning-wheel. "At last 
the tardy world knocked at the lowly door. ' ' All he had written was 
eagerly sought for and demanded by the now sympathetic public. 
He no longer sought for publishers; they were quick to take anything 
that came from his ready pen. His mother's sympathy made him 
great, sweetened his wit and dominated his sober moods. 

Rev. Frederick W. Farrar, dean of Canterbury, gives this beautiful 
tribute of love to a worthy mother: "My mother's habit was every 
day, immediately after breakfast, to withdraw for one hour to her 
own room, and to spend that hour in reading her Bible, in meditation 
and prayer. ^ 

"From that hour, as from a pure fountain, she drew the strength 
and sweetness which enabled her to fulfill all her duties and to remain 
unruffled by all worries and pettishness which are so often the intoler- 
able trial of narrow neighborhoods. 

"As I think of her life, and of all it had to bear, I see the absolute 
triumph of Christian grace in the lovely ideal of a Christian lady. I 
never saw her temper disturbed; I never heard her speak one word of 
anger or calumny, or of idle gossip ; I never observed in her any sign 
of a single sentiment unbecoming to a soul which had drunk of the 
river of the water of life, and which had fed upon the manna in the 
barren wilderness." 

The poet Goethe affectionately cherished the memory of his 
mother. When speaking of her to a friend, he said with passionate 
tenderness: "She was worthy of life!" After her death, he visited 
Frankfort and sought out every individual who had been kind to his 
mother and gratefully thanked them all. 

John Quincy Adams did not part from his mother till he was past 
middle life, yet this strong man's cry even then was: "O God, could 
she have been spared yet a little longer. . . . Without her the world 
seems to me like a solitude." 

When that grand old man, President Nott, of Union College, was 
more than ninety years old and had been for half a century a college 
president, as strength and sense failed him in his dying hours, the 
memory of his mother's tenderness was fresh and potent, and he 
could be lulled to restfu} sleep by a gentle patting on th© shoulder 



AFTER MARRIAGE. 183 

and the singing to him of old-time cradle-hymns, as if his mother 
were still sitting by his bedside in loving ministry, as she had in his 
early childhood, nearly a century before. A true mother is never 
forgotten by a true man, and all her children shall some day call her 
ministries "blessed." 

In an attack of sickness, the old commoner, Hon. Thaddeus 
Stevens, was visited by a clergyman who said to him: "It is no idle 
curiosity that has induced me to call upon you, but a desire to know 
your sentiments on the subject of religion. Should you die in this 
attack, what shall we say about your faith in the Bible?" 

Raising himself in bed, and arranging his cap and gown, this dis- 
tinguished statesman energetically said: "The Bible, the Bible — take 
that away and there is nothing left." Pressed to the question as to 
a personal experience and interest, he said: "I do not profess to have 
religion in that way, but my old Baptist mother had it, and I believe 
in my mother. " Is not this an encouraging thought for mothers, 
that a famous statesman wise in the things pertaining to the world, 
nearing the close of an eventful life, as he looks solemnly into the 
future, goes back to the early training of his boyhood and says: "I 
believe in my mother"? 

Woman's Patriotism. As to patriotism, the poet contends that 
America owes her existence and independence to the Pilgrim mothers, 

thus: 

"The mothers of our Pilgrim-land, 
Their bosoms pillowed men, 
And proud were they by such to stand 

In hammock, fort or glen. 
They shrank not from the foeman, 

They quailed not in the fight; 
But cheered their husbands through the day 
Or nursed them through the night." 

Can man find better cause for chivalry than to render obedience 
and loyalty to a land which gave birth to Harriet Beecher Stowe, 
who, with the noble Lincoln, emancipated her black brother? or 
Mary Livermore, Mother Bickerdyke and Clara Barton, who followed 
in the wake of the flag to care for the sick and wounded? or Maria 
Mitchell, our student of the stars? or Mary Lj'on, the consecrated 
teacher? or Julia Ward Howe, whose "Battle Hymn of the Republic" 



184 SOCIAL PURITY. 

has been the inspiration of nations born of God? or Frances E. Willard, 
whose very life was given to free man's body and soul from the blight 
of intemperance? 

Christ's Tribute to Woman. Not man alone, but God himself 
testified to the faithfulness of womankind when he put into her arms 
and care the Saviour of the world. This Saviour, Christ, the 
Redeemer, offers his tribute to womanhood when he declares first to 
her his Messiahship, instead of to the learned rabbi, Nicodemus. For 
her his sympathy is shown in the raising from the dead of the poor 
widow's only son; when he said to another woman, "Thou art loosed 
from thine infirmity;" when he healed the daughter of the Syro- 
Phoenician woman; when he wept with Mary and Martha over their 
dead brother's grave; when he healed the woman who touched the 
hem of his garment ; when he restored to health her who lay sick of a 
fever; when he bade the little daughter of Jairus to rise from the 
slumber of death. 

He honored the gift of the poor widow, and memorialized her who 
broke the alabaster box of ointment on his head. In his greatest 
extremity, on Calvary's cross, with tenderest solicitude, he commends 
his sorrowing mother to the beloved disciple. After his resurrection 
he speaks first to Mary and commissions her with a divine message. 

Need we go farther than the approval of Divinity? 

Elevation of Women in Christian Lands. The nearer the nation to 
God, the higher is woman elevated. Non-Christian lands, even to this 
day, crush the woman-foot of China, persecute the child-widow of 
India, "make Persia's daughters mere chattels, and give a woman the 
twelfth share in a husband in the dominions of the Grand Turk." 

Even in England, as late as Johnson's time, he said: "We have 
different modes of punishment: stocks for the men, a ducking-stool 
for the women and a pound for beasts." . - . 

In no country is woman more highly honored, nor the Christ-spirit 
better exemplified, than in Christian America. Then, womanhood of 
this fair land to which ye are chosen heirs, let 

"God, home and country be thy care, 
Thou queen of all the ages." 
Thou hast a work to Heaven more fair 
Than crowned kings or sages. 



AFTER MARRIAGE. 185 

"The bright-eyed boys who crowd our schools, 

The knights of book and pen, 
Weary of childish games and moods, 

Will soon be stalwart men, — 
The leaders in the race of life, 

The men to win applause, 
The great minds born to rule the State, 

The wise to make the laws. 

"Teach them to guard with jealous care 

The land that gave them birth, 
As patriot sons of patriot sires, — 

The dearest spot of earth. 
Teach them the sacred trust to keep 

Like true men, pure and brave; 
And o'er them through the ages, bid 

Fair freedom's banner wave." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

WIFEHOOD — WHAT A BRIDE AND MOTHER SHOULD KNOW. 

The Nuptial Relation. The first step in the bride's new life is 
attended with more or less inconvenience and suffering. The great 
object of the union of two lives is the transmission of life. In the 
fulfilment of this duty woman assumes an important part. 

Dr. Napheys says: "The first nuptial relations should be fruitless, 
in order that the indispositions possibly arising from them shall have 
time to subside before the appearance of the disturbances incident to 
pregnancy. One profound change should not too quickly succeed 
another. About the tenth day after menstruation should, therefore, 
be chosen for the marriage ceremony. ' ' 

This is a time when pregnancy is not likely to occur, and so more 
favorable for a bride who is already exhausted because of the extra 
work and excitement caused by the wedding festivities. 

The pain and show of blood, in the consummation of marriage, is 
due to the breaking of a membrane called the hymen. This mem- 
brane is situated in the lower extremity of the vaginal passage, and 
protects the reproductive organs from cold and anything which 
might injure them. Sometimes this membrane becomes so firm that 
it will not yield readily to ordinary natural pressure, and advice from 
a physician should be sought. Sometimes a slight operation will 
remove the difficulty with very little pain. 

It was once thought that the presence of this membrane was an 
unmistakable sign of purity, and if it were absent, that the woman had 
departed from the path of virtue. Eminent physicians now say that 
its absence proves nothing. Its presence is no more a surety than its 
absence. It is now well known that widows, and wives long separated 
from their husbands, have an experience much like the bride. 

In most young women the hymen is found, and its rupture is 
usually attended by the flow of a small quantity of blood, but in the 
case of a woman with a large vagina, and having a large opening in 
the membrane, sexual connection may be had without rupturing the 

186 




HEAVENLY MUSIC. 



WHAT A BRIDE AND MOTHER SHOULD KNOW. 187 

hymen so as to cause irritation or a flow of blood. Again, many 
young women, from various causes, such as an accident in childhood, 
or from the habit of cleansing the vagina by the use of a syringe after 
menstruation, have ruptured this membrane or have prevented its full 
development, so that many virtuous young women have no discernible 
hymen. 

The marital relation usually is without pleasure on the part of the 
wife during the first few weeks on account of the irritation attending 
the rupture of the hymen. 

Moderation Disciplines the Appetite. Too frequent indulgence 
at this period is many times the cause of inflammatory diseases and 
general ill health. In case of pregnancy following, the child is likely 
to be feeble, and the tendency is to a shortened existence. 

Moderation strengthens and preserves the health and doubles the 
gratification. It is not only for the benefit of one party, but is also 
to the advantage of the other. It is doubly profitable, for it disci- 
plines the appetite and preserves the bond of sympathy. It is a mut- 
ual benefit. 

The Jewish law forbade the indulgence of the marriage relation 
during the monthly sickness, and not until after the cleansing from it, 
which occurred on the eighth day after menstruation had ceased. 
(See Lev. 15:19, 25, 28; also Lev. 18:19.) This is a law which 
modern civilization would do well to observe for the sake of posterity. 
We have no improvement upon it. 

The Prospective Mother. "The family begins properly with the 
baby. Men and women may love, court, marry and live together, but 
there is no family until the husband and wife can say to each other, 
'Two times one are two, and one to carry \ makes three.' " 

Every household is a small kingdom, and the cradle is the royal 
throne. The little king or queen is the imperial personage who com- 
mands our loyalty and devoted affection. 

Much has been said concerning the influence of the mother upon 
the child, but have you ever thought of the child's influence upon 
the mother? It is difficult to say positively which is the greater and 
more potent educator, the mother or the child. In the care of the 
child, the mother's selfishness and vanity disappear. 

Where once she sought only her own ease and pleasure, now she 

13 



188 SOCIAL PURITY. 

studies the best good of her child. Where once she gave way to pas- 
sionate and intemperate words, her language is now temperate and 
soothing. Where once she sought only her own gratification, she 
now sacrifices such indulgences that she may bring a nobler ministry to 
a new being, the product of a virtuous love. 

A mother of experience says: "The duty of a mother to her babe 
begins before its birth. Every irritable feeling should then be 
restrained, and overflowing joy and hope be the daily aliment of 
life." It should be a season of calm and quietude. The unfolding 
organs of the new life require the nursing of silence and joyful love. 
As the little being takes its hold upon life, every influence should be 
brought to bear upon the forming of a perfect organization. 

Herbert Spencer says: "Of all bequests of parents to children, 
the most valuable is a sound constitution. ' ' Intelligent married peo- 
ple, if addicted to right habits of living, may almost certainly have 
bright, intelligent and healthy children, provided that the ancestry 
have not been tainted by promiscuous sexual indulgence, for we can 
not gather figs of thistles. 

General Health. Every prospective mother should use every 
means at her command to preserve her physical health and strength. 
She should avoid everything calculated to annoy or distress her. 

This is a critical period for both herself and her child. Mental 
tranquillity should be maintained by carefully keeping up her general 
health, by pleasant associations, by entertaining and inspiring con- 
versation, by ennobling acts of kindness, and by daily communication 
with the Author of her being. 

Dr. Foote advises thus: "During the period of pregnancy, 
excessive sexual indulgence unduly develops in the unborn child the 
passion which leads so many young people to a destructive vice. 
Even amative excitement on the part of the mother, without indul- 
gence, has a tendency to do this. She should consequently avoid such 
food and drink as stimulate the amative impulse. When the impulse 
becomes strong, when the desire is so great as to take possession of 
the mind, it is then better that it should be gratified, lest the foetus 
be marked by this unsatisfied appetite, thereby producing the very 
evil sought to be avoided. Sleeping in separate beds may be advis- 
able to prevent the tendency to excitement by contact. Association 



WHAT A BRIDE AND MOTHER SHOULD KNOW. 189 

with deformed people, or those having birthmarks or diseases which 
cause unnatural manifestations and expressions, should be avoided as 
far as possible to avert the danger of marking the unborn child with 
any of these peculiarities. 

4 'Cramped positions in sitting, stooping, bending and sleeping, 
falls and contusions, and violent coition in sexual intercourse, should 
be cautiously avoided, to save the precious little being in the womb 
from displacement of its limbs or spinal distortion, which might result 
in permanent physical deformity." 

When Conception Takes Place. When the union of the ovum and 
male principle (sperm) is accomplished, conception or impregnation 
is said to have taken place. This ovum is so small as to be invisible 
to the naked eye, and with many women passes off within forty-eight 
hours after menstruation begins. With some delicate women it is 
retained as late as fourteen days after. 

At the time of menstruation the ovum is thrown off from the 
ovary, and passes along the Fallopian tube to the womb, where it 
remains, usually, for several days. 

Should it come in contact with the male principle while in the 
womb or on its journey there, a new life is begun. It is still an 
unsettled question in just which place impregnation occurs. It is 
thought by scientists that it may take place either in the ovaries, the 
oviducts or the womb. 

If the union of germ and sperm has not been effected, the ovum 
passes off in the excretions. 

The Only Safe Rule. Conception can not then occur until another 
ovum takes up its line of travel, which is usually two weeks later than 
the fourteenth day from menstruation; that is, at the commencement 
of the next period of menstruation. 

These periods of sterility are not fixed, however. Conception may 
occur during this latter two weeks, as sometimes the ovum may be 
ripened before its time on account of prolonged sexual excitement, 
and may have made its advent in the womb before its presence is sus- 
pected. Then again, the mate principle may be unusually lively and 
long-lived and may live in the uterus until the new ovum arrives at 
the proper time, so that it is not altogether certain when conception 
may be avoided, though the above rule holds good in a general way. 



190 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Signs of Pregnancy. When a married woman ceases to menstru- 
ate, it may usually be taken as a sign that conception has taken 
place, yet this is not always evidence, as the suppression may be 
caused by a severe cold, by some uterine difficulty, or by a wasting 
disease like consumption. 

If in two or three weeks after the time for the appearance of the 
menses, a distressing morning sickness visits a woman, which con- 
tinues, with vomiting, until the third or fourth month, and with a 
change of the form, such as the enlargement of the breasts with tender 
or sore nipples, and if the uterus enlarges and rises above the brim 
of the pelvis, she may add these signs to others in favor of conception. 

But one of the most important signs is the involuntary movements 
of the child, known as quickening, which occurs from the eighteenth 
to the twentieth week. Occasionally a woman may quicken as early 
as the third month, and in very rare cases, as late as the sixth month. 
The sensation of quickening is said by many women to resemble the 
fluttering of a bird, and the mother is often nervous, hysterical or 
faint. 

A physician usually determines the condition of the inquirer by 
watching for the beating of the foetal heart, which beats nearly twice 
as fast as that of the mother. 

Of the period of pregnancy, Dr. Cowan says: "It should be one of 
increased health rather than increased disorders. ' ' Women who have 
live hygienically usually find the above experience theirs, but unfor- 
tunately this is not the experience of all. To many it means a period 
of suffering and mental anguish. Many know not a day's relief from 
nausea from the time of conception till the day of delivery. 

Headaches, neuralgia, indigestion and constipation frequently 
accompany this condition, making this period long to be remembered 
and generally dreaded on account of its misery. Again, there are 
women whose health is never better than at this time. Many pre- 
viously delicate women have been improved in general health and 
have passed the nine months of pregnancy in comparative comfort. 

Physical Care. During this period, the young mother should con- 
tinue the mental, moral and physical training of which we have pre- 
viously spoken. 

She should be especially careful in the selection and preparation 



WHAT A BRIDE AND MOTHER SHOULD KNOW. 191 

of her food, as she must now supply nutrition for two. The corset 
and all bands about the hips should be abandoned. Any article of 
clothing that interferes with the free movement of the limbs in walk- 
ing or exercising should also be omitted from the wardrobe of a preg- 
nant woman. 

Short, energetic walks in a pure atmosphere with agreeable com- 
pany is good exercise. Deep, full breathing in the open air is of 
utmost importance. 

Violent exercise, as running, dancing and horseback riding, should 
not be indulged in at this time, particularly in the latter months, as 
they frequently are the cause of miscarriage. 

A lively, active woman generally has an easier, quicker delivery 
than one who spends her waiting months in idleness or in sedentary 
occupation. 

If pregnant during the winter months, when one is apt to remain 
indoors the greater part of the time, try to secure perfect ventilation 
and drainage. 

Prenatal Culture. In the chapter on Prenatal Culture^ we have 
spoken of the mental condition of the mother and her surroundings 
at the time of pregnancy. In some families the maternal impressions 
have less influence upon the offspring than in others. 

Yet there are many mothers who can trace in their children their 
own mental and moral conditions during pregnancy. A mother's 
environments, tastes and habits are often found clearly marked in her 
child, much to her great sorrow and to the child's disadvantage. And 
again, by thoughtful effort and careful, systematic training on the 
part of the mother, the child has been blessed with a fine physique, 
or a strong, virtuous character, or an active intellect, or a biased 
tendency to some art or special branch of learning. 

Prof. Riddell, who has made this subject a special study, says: 
"The more I study the influence of maternal impressions upon the 
life, mentality and character of men, the more I am led to believe 
that the education and moral training that a child receives before it 
sees the light of day are the most influential and, therefore, the most 
important part of its education." 

"The order of prenatal training through maternal impressions is 
plainly indicated by the order of the embryonic development. The 



192 SOCIAL PURITY. 

physical organism forms first, and the brain areas that control the 
mentality later. The principal requirements of the embryo in its 
early development are nutrition and freedom; it will require these 
throughout the entire period of gestation also, but if they are wanting 
during the first four or five months, arrested growth or physical 
deformity is apt to result. The mental conditions of the mother are 
potential during the entire period of gestation, but they are especi- 
ally so during the latter part of the period. Therefore, if special 
stress is to be placed upon the physical and mental training at differ- 
ent periods, the physical should be first, the mental second and the 
moral last. ' ' 

Continence During Gestation. Dr. Cowan says: "During the 
full period of gestative influence, as well as during the period of nurs- 
ing, sexual congress should not be had between husband and wife. 
This is the law of nature, the law of God, and outside of Christendom 
is never violated. Animals will not permit it, savages do not prac- 
tice it, and in over three-quarters of the world it is looked upon as 
infamous by our own species." 

Professor Riddell says: "Unchaste maternity is the principal cause 
of the hereditary tendency toward sexual dissipation. Most of the 
human race have been subjected to this unnatural, debasing influence 
during their prenatal development. Thousands of noble men and 
women whose lives are spotless, struggle against these maternal 
impressions from early youth to the decline of life; while millions 
who are considered chaste, are so only because the present ethics of 
matrimony allows the unrestricted expression of their abnormal 
desires. 

"Breaking the law of chastity during the period of gestation and 
lactation is one of the great causes of infant mortality. Many par- 
ents, by the abuse of the marital rights, have robbed their offspring of 
physical strength, mental vigor or moral purity. Many who are 
anxiously caring for a puny little weakling, who would gladly sacrifice 
all and deny themselves every comfort to save its life, find, alas, that 
they began their self-denial too late! Others whose children are 
strong and healthy early manifest tendencies that betray their unnat- 
ural prenatal training. . . . 

Absolute Freedom Necessary. "The prospective mother should 



WHAT A BRIDE AND MOTHER SHOULD KNOW. 193 

enjoy absolute freedom. She should be relieved from needless care 
and anxiety, and be allowed to assert the queenly rights of her own 
person, and follow the mandates of her own instincts and choice. 
This absolute freedom is not only highly essential for her comfort and 
welfare, but it is also of great importance to her child. If the mother 
is a slave, if she is compelled to subject her will to the will of the 
husband, if she is made to feel that she must obey the dictates of 
another, rest assured that her child will be a slave \ a born serf, lacking 
in self-reliance, independence, sense of freedom and the self-respect 
and dignity that belongs to the well-born. . . . No republic can sur- 
vive that enslaves womanhood, and no monarchy can maintain its 
power to rule over men born of free women." 

Artistic Surroundings, cheerful and entertaining reading matter, 
congenial friends, inspiring music, beautiful scenery, all have a ten- 
dency to produce an organism of refinement, and one that is capable 
of high mental culture. Ancestral defects and undesirable hereditary 
traits, if taken in time, may be largely modified by the mother's giv- 
ing greater energy and systematic effort to the cultivation of the 
opposite traits and characteristics. 

The longer the mother is in training, the more persistent her dis- 
ciplinary effort, the better the result. There is no royal road to excel- 
lence, any more than there is to knowledge. If anger, sorrow, fear, 
joy or any strong emotion of the mother affects the blood and change 
or modify its life-giving power, as scientists say they do, then it fol- 
lows that the physical condition of the mother alone may influence 
the mental and moral attitude of the child. But physiologists have 
proven that one life may influence another independent of physical 
communication. 

The qualities of mind are as liable to transmission as bodily con- 
figuration. Memory, judgment, genius are often traced in the 
offspring. If the same faculties or tendencies exist in both parents 
the repetition in the child will be likely to be more pronounced. 
Physical weaknesses, such as scrofula or consumption, transmitted 
from parent to child are often more strongly marked in the child than 
in the parent. 

Fortunately the counteracting influence of one parent over the 
other does much to restore an equilibrium. The life of the embryo 



194 SOCIAL PURITY. 

is so closely united to that of the mother and it is so responsive to 
her every emotion and condition, both physically and mentally, that 
necessarily she decides to a large extent its mental and physical ten- 
dencies. 

The prospective mother should avoid as far as possible all 
unpleasant or harrowing scenes, all disagreeable associations and 
whatever has a tendency to annoy. 

Child-marking and Fancies. A pregnant woman may become 
frightened or deeply annoyed by a circumstance, or hideous or 
deformed object, and the child may be deformed thereby. A lady 
during pregnancy was severely shocked by the appearance of her hus- 
band, who was badly wounded in the face. When her child was born 
it was marked on the face corresponding in situation and extent to 
that of the father's. Other examples of a like nature have been given 
under the subject of Maternal Impressions. 

Fancies and appetite largely affect women of sensitive natures, 
and through them their children may receive visible impress. 

A lady in the early stages of pregnancy took a great fancy for 
some oranges, and at one sitting ate sixteen. Her baby when three 
months old ate an orange, skin and all, making herself sick. When 
this child grew to be a woman, she considered an orange the most 
delicious fruit. Another woman, while carrying her child, craved 
strawberries, and could not be satisfied without them. Her child 
bore the resemblances of strawberries on several parts of her body. 

A pregnant woman of our own acquaintance, who seldom had fresh 
meat, very strongly desired some beefsteak, and when calling at a 
neighbor's, saw a piece lying on the kitchen table. Ashamed to say 
anything about it, she strove to control herself and banish the 
thought from her mind. When her daughter was born, she had a 
large red spot like a piece of fresh meat on her breast, which she bore 
through life. The mother always attributed the mark of her daughter 
to her own intense desire for beefsteak while carrying the child. 

Jacob recognized this influence when he placed the peeled rods in 
sight of the animals about to procreate. 

As has been shown, the plastic brain of the unborn child is quick 
to receive impressions of various kinds. As the mother would secure 
the best endowment for her child that it may be well guarded against 



WHAT A BRIDE AND MOTHER SHOULD KNOW. 195 

the ills of life, let her avoid everything tending to excite or distress 
her mind, or disgust a sensitive taste. Let her cultivate her highest 
nature by reading instructive books, by indulging in pure and enno- 
bling emotions, by entertaining those thoughts that are most elevated 
and refined. 

Parturition. Parturition, or childbirth, to most women of civil- 
ized nations is only another word for intense agony. No other suffer- 
ing can be likened unto it. And yet we are told that it may be made 
painless. 

Those women who bear children with the least pain are those who 
live much in the open air and are engaged in active pursuits, and 
whose physical frame and general health are nearest perfection. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in her lectures to ladies, said: "My 
mission among women is to preach this new gospel. If you suffer, it 
is not because you are cursed of God, but because you violate his 
laws. What an incubus it would take from woman could she be edu- 
cated to know that the pains of maternity are no curse upon her kind. 
We know that among the Indians the squaws do not suffer in child- 
birth. They will step aside from the ranks, even on the march, and 
return in a short time, bearing with them the new-born child. What 
an absurdity, then, to suppose that only enlightened Christian women 
are cursed. 

Facts Versus Theory. "But one word of fact is worth a volume 
of philosophy. Let me give you some of my own experience. I am 
the mother of seven children. My girlhood was spent mostly in the 
open air. I early imbibed the idea that a girl is just as good as a boy, 
and I carried it out. I would walk five miles before breakfast, or 
ride ten on horseback. After I was married I wore my clothes sen- 
sibly. The weight hung entirely on my shoulders. I never com- 
pressed my body out of its natural shape. When my first four 
children were born, I suffered very little. I then made up my mind 
that it was totally unnecessary for me to suffer at all ; so I dressed 
lightly, walked every day, lived as much as possible in the open air, 
ate no condiments, and took proper care of myself. The night before 
the birth of the child I walked three miles. The child was born 
without a particle of pain. I bathed it and dressed it myself, and it 
weighed ten and one-half pounds. The same day I dined with the 



196 SOCIAL PURITY. 

family. Everybody said I would surely die, but I never had a 
moment's inconvenience from it. I know this is not being delicate 
and refined, but if you would be vigorous and healthy, in spite of 
the diseases of your ancestors and your own disregard of nature's 
laws, try it. ' ' 

Within a comparatively few years the theory has been advanced 
that if a pregnant woman will abstain from food rich in elements that 
nourish and build up the bones, her confinement will be comparatively 
easy, and possibly with no pain at all. The bones of the child will 
then be soft and elastic, and will yield their position to the firmer 
ones of the mother as it is forced into the outer world. The mother's 
food may then be varied so as to include such food as will develop 
the bony structure of the child. 

Mr. Rowbotham, a London chemist, in 1841, wrote a pamphlet 
giving his wife's experience in relation to this theory, from which I 
quote: 

"The subject of this experiment had within three years given birth 
to two children, and not only suffered extremely in the parturition, 
but for two or three months previous to delivery her general health 
was very indifferent, her lower extremities exceedingly swelled and 
painful, the veins so full and prominent as to be almost bursting; in 
fact, to prevent such a catastrophe, bandages had to be applied, and 
for the last few weeks of gestation her size and weight were such 
as to prevent her attending to her usual duties. She had on this 
occasion, two years and a half after her last delivery, advanced full 
seven months in pregnancy before she commenced the experiment at 
her husband's earnest instance; her legs and feet were, as before, 
considerably swelled, the veins distended and knotty, and her health 
diminishing. 

"She began the experiment the first week in January, 1841. She 
commenced by eating an apple and an orange the first thing in the 
morning, and again at night. This was continued for four days, when 
she took just before breakfast, in addition to the apple and orange, 
the juice of a lemon mixed with sugar, and at breaktast two or three 
roasted apples, taking a very small quantity of her usual food, viz., 
wheaten bread and butter. During the forenoon she took an orange 
or two and an apple. For dinner she took fish or flesh in a small 



WHAT A BRIDE AND MOTHER SHOULD KNOW. 197 

quantity, and potatoes, greens and apples, the apples sometimes 
peeled and cut in pieces, sometimes boiled whole with the potatoes, 
sometimes roasted before the fire and afterward mixed with sugar. In 
the afternoon she sucked an orange or ate an apple or some grapes, 
and always took some lemon juice mixed with sugar or treacle. 

' 'At first the fruits acted strongly on the stomach and intestines, 
but this soon ceased, and she could take several lemons without 
inconvenience. For supper she again had roasted apples or a few 
oranges, and rice or sago boiled in milk; sometimes the apples, peeled 
and cored, were boiled with the rice or sago. On several occasions 
she took for supper apples and raisins, or figs with an orange cut 
among them, and sometimes all stewed together. Two or three times 
a week she took a tablespoonful of a mixture made of the juice of 
two oranges, one lemon, half a pound of grapes and a quarter of a 
pound of sugar or treacle. The sugar or treacle served mainly to 
cover the taste of the acids, but all saccharine matter is very nutri- 
tious. The object in giving the acids was to dissolve as much as pos- 
sible the earthy or bony matter which she had taken with her food 
in the first seven months of her pregnancy. 

''She continued this course for six weeks, when to her surprise and 
satisfaction, the swelled and prominent state of the veins, which 
existed before she began this regimen, had entirely subsided; her legs 
and feet, which were also swelled considerably, had returned to their 
former state, and she became so light and active that she could run 
up and down a flight of twenty stairs with more ease than before she 
was pregnant. 

"One morning at nine o'clock, after having cleaned her apart- 
ments, she was in the yard shaking a carpet, which she did with as 
much ease as any one could have done. At half-past ten she said she 
believed her 'time was come,' and the accoucheur was sent for. At 
one o'clock the child was born, and the surgeon left the room." He 
testified that she had a safe labor and an easier delivery than he gen- 
erally met with. 

"The child, a boy, was finely proportioned and exceedingly soft, 
his bones resembling gristle. He became of large size and very 
graceful, athletic and strong as he grew up. The diet of the mother 
was immediately changed, and she ate bread and milk and all articles 



198 SOCIAL PURITY. 

of food in which phosphate of lime is to be found, and which had 
been left out before. She also got up from her confinement immedi- 
ately and well. 

"After her previous delivery full ten days elapsed before she could 
leave her bed, and then she swooned at the first attempt; on this 
occasion she left her bed on the fourth day, and not only washed, but 
partly dressed herself. Had she not been influenced by custom and 
also been somewhat timid, she might have done so sooner." 

For a number of years Dr. Alice B. Stockham has tested this 
theory, and considers its practice a boon to womankind. She relates 
a number of instances, from which I select one as coming under her 
direct notice, which shows the efficacy of the fruit diet: 

Fruit Diet. "Mrs. L. T. Colburn, of Eureka, Kansas, is a woman, 
short, fleshy and what is called solid built. She has five children; 
with the first four her labors were severe and prolonged. Some of 
them only terminated with instrumental interference. Relays of 
neighboring women were worn out in rendering her the customary 
aid, and some of her male relatives were pressed into service. Dur- 
ing her last pregnancy, accidentally, she lived upon fruit and rice, and 
her experience was as unlike the former deliveries as night is unlike 
day. Her husband kept a grocery and provision store, and the family 
lived over the store. Mrs. Colburn was in the store frequently. She 
had a craving for lemons and oranges, and ate of them very freely, 
often consuming half a dozen of either at one time. 

"At the end of nine months she was awakened by the 'breaking of 
the waters.' She aroused her husband. He thought he had better 
go for a doctor. 'Why, there is no use,' she said, 'I have not a par- 
ticle of pain.' However, he feared there was something wrong, and 
after calling her sister, went with all possible haste for medical aid. 
The sister, too, was alarmed, and went to the next door to call a 
neighbor. Before either returned, while Mrs. C. was entirely alone, 
the child was born without the sensation of pain." 

While fruit should be freely used, it may be supplemented by rice 
in various forms, fish, lean meats, soups, farina, nuts, tapioca, pota- 
toes, rhubarb, asparagus, celery and the various preparations of corn, 
with a moderate use of eggs and milk, while wheat, beans, oatmeal, 
barley and rye should be avoided. Pastries and highly-seasoned^ 



WHAT A BRIDE AND MOTHER SHOULD KNOW. 199 

dishes are out of place at any time, and should form no part of a 
pregnant woman's diet if she would escape indigestion and its attend- 
ant evils. 

A diet consisting mainly of the articles above mentioned, with 
regular deep breathing exercises in the open air and a daily sponge 
bath, followed by energetic rubbing, will be found to be wonderfully 
invigorating and conducive to comfort, while at the same time it is 
an invaluable preparation for a time of great need. 

Sitz Bath. One of the most soothing remedies for a tired, nerv- 
ous woman is the sitz bath, which would better be taken in the middle 
of the forenoon or half-way between meals. If taken just before 
retiring, it will almost surely prepare one for a quiet, restful sleep. 

A small wash-tub will answer every purpose, if you have not a 
bath-tub. A stick of wood may be placed under the tub at one side, 
when a small quantity of water may answer to cover the hips of the 
bather. 

The water should be blood-warm for ordinary use. If in pain 
about the abdomen 6r bowels, or if there be any inflammation of the 
vagina, hot water will relieve. Let the bather sit in the lower side 
of the tub with the feet outside and the shoulders covered with a 
blanket. The water should cover the hips and abdomen, and while 
the bather sits in the bath for eight or ten minutes, she may rub her 
hips, back, breasts and abdomen gently if she so chooses, or she may 
simply sit at ease. 

After rising from the tub, rub briskly with towel and hand, and 
lie down to rest before dressing. A cat-nap of fifteen or twenty 
minutes at this time will tone up the nerves and greatly refresh the 
waning powers. 

Constipation. Constipation is a common ailment of pregnancy 
arising very often from sedentary habits during this period, and from 
the eating of too concentrated foods, such as sweets, fats and starchy 
foods. 

Vigorous, muscular exercise and an abundant use of coarse vege- 
tables and acid fruits will in a great measure allay this difficulty. 

There should be a full evacuation of the bowels daily. If a certain 
time is set apart for this duty and strictly attended to each day, it will 
become so regular a habit as to cause inconvenience if not performed 



200 SOCIAL PURITY. 

at the regular time. Omit it once or twice, the habit is broken and 
health suffers. Women are more especially apt to neglect the calls 
of nature from feelings of delicacy when away from home or in public 
places. Too frequently she allows her household duties to procrasti- 
nate this act till the desire to evacuate has passed, when the trouble 
begins. This duty should be made imperative in the latter weeks of 
pregnancy. The womb, situated between the rectum and the bladder, 
is liable to suffer if these organs are not emptied when nature gives 
the signal. 

Preparation for Confinement. For weeks perhaps the prospective 
young mother has, in busy anticipation, been preparing little gar- 
ments, into every stitch of which has gone a loving thought. Many 
times, no doubt, her thoughts have found expression in words of love 
addressed to the tender human bud so carefully nourished by her own 
life's blood, and then her thoughts have turned to the Author of all 
good, craving his blessing upon the new life so soon to be ushered 
into a world of strife, and this inter-communion has given assurance 
and solace. 

The joys of motherhood, though interrupted for a time, have 
begun. Though the night of travail darkens, at morn it shall be 
light. Her heart will then sing as did the angels on the Judean plain, 
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward 
men." 

Many young mothers suffer unnecessarily in their first confinement 
through ignorance. Many others do not know what preparations and 
arrangements to make for the convenience of this occasion. For the 
benefit of such, a few simple suggestions will be given. 

Care of Nipples. In the first confinement, which is usually the 
most severe and trying, care should be previously given to the nipples. 
In the latter weeks of pregnancy they sometimes become flat and 
depressed, owing to the increased size of the breast and the inelasticity 
of the milk-tubes. A few weeks before expected confinement, nipple 
shields with broad bases and openings should be worn day and night 
to develop small and sunken nipples. If shields can not be obtained, 
the simple contrivance of a common clay pipe may be placed over 
the nipple, and another person may extract the air through the stem 
of the pipe. 



WHAT A BRIDE AND MOTHER SHOULD KNOW. 201 

Another way of developing the nipple is to apply a band of collo- 
dium an inch or two wide, a half inch or more from the base of the 
nipple, with a small brush or the finger. Several applications may 
be required to produce the desired result. 

To keep the nipple soft and pliable so as not to have it crack 
and become sore while nursing, rub it gently with thumb and 
finger, and bathe twice a day with vaseline or sweet oil of almonds. 
If, however, the nipples should crack and become sore while nursing, 
a powder, composed of one dram of borax and seven drams of fine 
starch, may be frequently applied to the nipple, which may be pro- 
tected by using a nipple shield while the child nurses. 

Baby Basket. The making and furnishing of the baby basket is 
a pleasant pastime for a waiting mother. A shallow willow basket 
twelve, by eighteen inches is a convenient size. It may be lined with 
any soft material and trimmed as elaborately or as simply as one 
chooses, only taking care that it be not too elaborate for use. This 
will be a receptacle for the baby's first clothing, small towels, old, 
soft pieces of linen, fine soap and baby powder, a sponge, a covered 
glass of lard or vaseline, a pair of scissors, a strong linen thread, large 
and small pins, and the mother's bandage. 

Close at hand, in a convenient shelf or drawer, should be placed a 
large rubber cloth, half the size of the bed (an oilcloth will answer 
the same purpose), a number of old sheets and quilts, soft muslins 
made from worn-out clothing, a pile of towels and a rubber water- 
bag. These should be in readiness so that there may be no unneces- 
sary hurry and excitement when needed. 

The mother's clothing, to be worn in confinement, should also be 
in order, and where it may be found at a moment's warning. 

Signs of Approaching Labor. Sometimes a few days before the 
commencement of labor, the mother experiences a feeling of lightness 
and buoyancy, she breathes more easily, is relieved of the customary 
pressure upon stomach and lungs, and altogether feels more like her 
former self. 

This is caused by the dropping of the womb, which frequently irri- 
tates the bladder so that it must discharge its contents at short inter- 
vals. Later she becomes nervous, restless and depressed. A mucous 
discharge resembling whites issues from the vagina. Later the 



202 SOCIAL PURITY. 

mucus is tinged with blood, and pains across the back and thighs 
appear at intervals. There is a desire to empty the bladder and 
bowels, and perhaps sickness and vomiting may augment the other 
discomforts; and, finally, there is the breaking of the water-bag. 

Sometimes a young mother mistakes a false pain for the true labor 
of delivery. False pains usually take place three or four weeks 
before the full time, and are not accompanied by the "show" of blood. 
They are confined to the abdomen at first, then wander from one part 
to another, and are not of the bearing-down kind. True labor pains 
generally begin in the back, come at regular intervals, increase in 
severity, and the periods of rest grow shorter as labor advances. 

The period of gestation is about forty weeks, or two hundred and 
eighty days. Commence the count about three days after the last 
day of menstruation. 

The ingenious woman will devise a dress that is both comfortable 
and convenient for this occasion. Any simple, warm wrapper will do 
for the outside garment. Under this she may wear the night-dress 
and underwear that she designed to use after her labor. They may 
be folded up and pinned about her waist until the child is born. A 
short skirt may be worn to take the place of the lower part of the 
bed-gown, which should be taken off when the bed-gown is let down. 

The Bed. Cover a firm mattress with an old, thick comfort. On 
this place the permanent sheets. Over this place the rubber cloth or 
oilcloth, whichever you have in readiness. Spread on this another 
old comfort or quilt, and over all an old sheet. After delivery, the 
oilcloth and all above it may be removed. 

Attendants. At this time only so many assistants should be in 
the room as will be of actual service. Too many are in each other's 
way, and tend to flurry and irritate the patient, who should be relieved 
of anything that will disquiet or annoy. 

It is not our purpose to take the place of a physician, but a few 
suggestions may be timely to a young couple, should the doctor and 
nurse be out of reach at the time, and the assistance only such as 
neighbors can give. Such a predicament sometimes happens, and 
novices must be initiated into service. 

The attendants should be cheerful and patient, and encourage the 
patient as much as possible by a hopeful outlook. All nervousness 



WHAT A BRIDE AND MOTHER SHOULD KNOW. 203 

and needless cause of fear should be carefully concealed from the 
young mother. 

As soon as the head is born, see if the cord, or navel-string, be 
wound about the neck of the child. Should this be so, remove at 
once by slipping the noose over the head. The head should be sup- 
ported until the shoulders and the remainder of the body are expelled. 
Give the child sufficient space to breathe, and remove any membrane 
from the mouth and nose. Let it lie a few minutes, a short distance 
from the mother, until full breathing is established. When a lively, 
healthy child comes into the world, he will make his presence 
known by a lusty cry; respiration will begin and the cord cease to 
pulsate. 

When the functions have commenced action, the cord should be 
tied with a strong silk or linen thread within two inches of the body 
and also about three inches from the body. Cut the cord between 
the two places tied. 

The child may then be washed and dressed by an attendant. In 
the meantime the mother should receive attention. 

If a physician be present, as he ought to be, he will see to the 
removing of the after-birth. The soiled bedding should be removed 
and the parts cleansed with warm water. The physician or nurse will 
see to the proper contraction of the womb, when the bandage may be 
applied. 

After resting an hour or so, she may then have her clothing 
arranged; and should she have cold feet, a hot-water bottle may be 
placed near them. 

Frequently change the napkins, as clean, dry ones add much to 
the comfort of the mother. Should she feel weak and hungry, she 
may take some warm tea and toast. Then let her rest undisturbed, 
unless the physician or nurse deem it wise to put the child to her 
breast. 

Caked Breasts. If the breasts become hard and tender to the 
touch and darting pains are felt, if the mother becomes chilly and 
then feverish and nervous, hot fomentations should be promptly used. 
The breasts should be gently rubbed with the palm of the hand, and 
the milk should be removed frequently. A little warm olive oil will 
help to soften the breasts when hard and painful. While the breasts 

14 



204 SOCIAL PURITY. 

are full and uncomfortable, as little drink should be taken as possible, 
as it helps to increase the flow of milk. This feverishness and flow of 
milk will not occur until the third or possibly the fourth day. When 
nursing her child, the mother should cover her breasts to avoid catch- 
ing cold. Should the shivering and uneasiness continue, the physician 
should be called in time to prevent the further caking of the breasts, 
which often becomes as painful as the labor itself. 

A young mother should induce her physician to bring with him a 
bottle of ether or chloroform when he comes to officiate at her con- 
finement. In the hands of a capable physician the use of these drugs 
gives a grateful relief, when pain becomes unendurable. But no one 
but the doctor should attempt to administer it. 

After labor, a well-fitting, smooth bandage, fastened but comfort- 
ably tight, will support the abdomen and produce a sense of ease. 
As the abdomen assumes its natural size, this may be tightened 
to fit. 

Mother's Influence Over Nursing Child. Previous to birth, the 
action of the mother's mind may leave an impression on the child for 
good or evil. This does not cease with its birth. The mother con- 
tinues to impress her child through her milk. Fear, excitement, anger 
or sorrow may so change the quality of the milk as to sicken the child 
or even cause its death. Some sudden shock to the nervous system 
may even stop the secretion of the milk. 

Care should be taken not to nurse the child soon after strong nerv- 
ous excitement on the part of the mother. 

Dressing the Baby. "For the first week, if delicate •, don't dress it 
at all. Don't bathe it. Rub it well each day with vaseline or sweet 
oil, and keep it buried in cotton batting, under light, warm shawls, in 
a well-padded box. Delicate babies should spend the first month of 
life on this plan. 

"Many of them will come through and become vigorous ultimately 
who would die on the regulation bathing and dressing practices. 
When the time comes to put baby into clothes, put first these con- 
trolling adjectives into your mind, and in this order: free, light, 
warm. Discard the idea of a pinning-blanket entirely ; also the abdom- 
inal bandage. Instead of the latter, have a knitted elastic affair of 
soft woolen worsted, to be slipped on like a section of the leg of a 



WHAT A BRIDE AND MOTHER SHOULD KNOW. 205 

stocking. Warmth, not pressure, is the need here. Have all his 
garments of soft woolen fabrics, and the fewer the better. 

"The first garment, then, is the knit trunk-encaser, and it passes as 
high as the armpits, and is held up by straps over the shoulders. In 
summer weather one more garment is enough, and that is a princess 
wrapper of soft, warm knit flannel, shirred at the bottom with a gath- 
ering-string that can be readily tied and untied, like the neck of a 
sack. The diaper comes nearly to the knee. The rest of the legs 
and feet are bare, and are free to kick about. No exposure is possible 
if the shirring-string gathers the garment below, except when diapers 
are being changed. With cool or cold weather coming on, add two 
more princess garments, also of woolen goods, a sleeveless skirt and 
a wrapper, with knit worsted stockings coming to the knee and 
pinned to the diaper — not socks. A jacket of eiderdown flannel can 
be added on cold days. In this rig baby's tender little body gets only 
protection. It can move as it should, in every direction; it can kick, 
throw its arms, breathe and grow. Whatever inclinations some 
mothers may have to make a display of white linen, white mull, silk 
mull, white batiste, white cottons, often embroidered and too often 
starched stiff, put none of this stuff on the baby. Soft, warm, flexible 
and easily-washed woolens cover baby's needs in every respect, and 
will indicate true good taste and good sense in the mother. 

"The eyes often are injured in infancy by being exposed to too 
much light. The child should not be held or allowed to sleep with 
the light from window, lamp or gas shining upon its face. The old- 
fashioned cradle, with its hood, was far more sensible than the modern 
cribs and bassinets that afford no protection from either glare or 
draught. 

"In the nursery medicine cupboard, which ought to be kept relig- 
iously locked, keep witch-hazel for bumps and bruises, wine of ipecac 
for croupy nights, and a bottle of lime water and oil for burns or 
scalds. For colds and hoarseness prepare a half-pound jar of lard and 
turpentine. Mix these in equal quantities and melt over hot water. 
It will thicken, but a tablespoonful can be heated in a few minutes at 
any time and rubbed on a child's chest, back, neck and the soles of 
his feet. A box of mustard has a place in the nursery medicine cup- 
board for hurried mustard plasters, a bottle of vinegar for bruises, a 



206 SOCIAL PURITY. 

package of absorbent cotton, a roll of bandages from half an inch to 
an inch and a half wide, tincture of iodine for chilblains, ginger or 
peppermint water for colic, chlorate of potash for sore throats, oil of 
cloves for toothache, and a roll of surgeon's adhesive plaster for cuts. 
It is a good plan for a mother to ask the advice of her doctor about 
simple home remedies. ' ' — Selected. 

A physician gives the following hints regarding proper sleeping- 
rooms for the children: 

The sunniest and best room in the house is not too good for the 
child. 

The apartment should be ventilated during the night as well as the 
day. 

A sick child should never occupy an inside room. Fresh air is a 
prime necessity. 

Gas stoves consume the air required by the child, and are not 
advisable in a sleeping-room. 

No sweeping should be done while the children are in the room. 
If, however, because of sickness, this is necessary, dust the furniture 
and floor with a moist cloth and use a carpet-sweeper instead of a 
broom. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE MOTHER AND THE CHILD. 

Nothing in the world is, perhaps, more pathetic nor more signifi- 
cant than the cry of a babe for its mother. No cry so touches the 
heart of humanity and is so readily heeded. The wail of the infant 
says in plainest words, "I want my mother," and in all the universe 
that is the one thing and the only thing he does want, and that is the 
one thing he should have. To supply the ever-coming babe with a 
good mother is a problem worthy the most serious study of human- 
kind. Nothing can take the place of a true and wise mother, and if 
the child is to reach a wholesome, well-rounded maturity of body and 
mind, the quality of motherhood must be of the very best. We have 
seen in the study of heredity that the defects of the mother are 
stamped indelibly upon the physical, moral and spiritual character of 
the child. We have read in the testimony of the wise and good of the 
influence of the early training of careful and pious motherhood, and 
we are confirmed more than ever in the opinion that what manhood, 
womanhood, childhood and babyhood most need is more mothering. 
Another has said: * 'While education can not take the place of com- 
mon sense, it does rectify the mistakes of ignorance and drills even 
the most stupid into a right-doing routine. And even the most highly- 
developed maternal instinct and~the most sterling common sense often 
need the guidance of the light of the experience of other common- 
sense folks. It is this guidance that science seeks to supply, for 
science is not the theories of schools, but the facts that men and 
women with common sense have discovered — sometimes at an enor- 
mous cost of human life." 

Mother's Anxiety. The mother's anxiety for the child is not 
chiefly in the first few months of babyhood, when it draws all its com- 
fort from her presence and depends upon her for its very existence. 
And yet, perhaps, the tiny beginnings of an influence which may con- 
tinue to extreme old age, may be earlier than we think. There is no 
power over a child — even a babe — more potent than a kind voice, 

207 



208 SOCIAL PURITY. 

every intonation of which tells of a throbbing, boundless love. The 
soothing touch of a mother's kindly hand works wonders for her child 
and heals his sickness as the balm of Gilead. As a rough school-boy, 
he may fly into a rage of resentment at the taunts of thoughtless com- 
panions, yet he seeks his mother as a haven of rest. 

The Call to Be a Mother. "When mothers realize the high calling 
to which they are chosen, we shall hear less of the drudgery, the nar- 
rowness, the cramping bondage of child-bearing. It is small mothers 
that make the life small. A woman who sees the all-round work of 
child-culture will recognize that she has a profession which compels 
a more symmetrical development on the part of the individual who 
attains success in it than does any other. 

"The reason why mothers sometimes become tiresome and petty 
is not because they are mothers, but because they are not mothers 
enough. They have been mothering only one side of their child's 
life, and so have missed the development which would come to them 
in the struggle for complete motherhood. Let the most ordinary 
woman grasp this conception of motherhood, and begin to struggle 
toward living it out, and she will grow intellectually and spiritually 
every day she lives. The attempt to direct the growth of the whole 
child will inevitably react upon her own nature. Let a woman real- 
ize that to be a great mother requires the highest possible human 
endowment and culture; that it makes, in fact, higher demands than 
does art of the artist, or literature of the novelist, and she will begin 
to glory in her profession. ' ' 

Let us not demand or expect too much of our children. It has 
taken us a lifetime of thirty or forty years to become what we are, 
and yet we are faulty. Can we reasonably look for patience and 
sound judgment in our children who have had the experience and dis- 
cipline of but a quarter of the number of years? A writer says con- 
cerning 

What to Expect in a Child's Love: "I do not think we should 
expect of children the sort of love of which we ourselves are capable. 
The child's love for the parent and the parent's love for the child are 
essentially different, and we may only arouse a sort of antagonism in 
the young by insisting upon our right to a self-sacrificing affection. 
Let us be content with the sweet dependence, the demonstrative 



THE MOTHER AND THE CHILD. 209 

fondness that is nature's response to our nature-prompted bestowal of 
ourselves upon our children. A degree of sturdy selfishness, however, 
is the prerogative of healthy childhood, and can not be regarded as 
altogether blameworthy. 

"Let the memories of their childhood be as bright as you can make 
them. Grant them every innocent pleasure in your power. It has 
often roused our indignation to see how carelessly their little plans 
were thwarted by older persons, when a very little trouble on their 
part would have given the child pleasure, the memory of which would 
last a lifetime." 

We have only to look back a few years to realize what disappoint- 
ment means to a child who lives in the doings of an hour. So let us 
be patient and gentle with the little ones, even if they are trying at 
times and rasp our quivering nerves with their noisy glee. Let us 
send them off to school with a kind good-by, and not a sharp " be 
gone with you. " It is more wise to impress them with the fact that 
it is easier to put everything for school in its proper place at the 
right time than to get nervous and cross hunting for wraps, overshoes 
and books when the clock warns that the hour for school is at hand. 

Kindness and Patience. There is much more force in advice and 
admonition that is kindly and pleasantly given than in cross, nagging 
tones. There are mothers, we are sorry to say, who habitually speak 
to their children in such sharp, loud, fault-finding tones that sensi- 
tive, nervous children go about the house in a cringing manner like a 
hunted criminal. On more hardy children such tones have an oppo- 
site effect. They are roused to a spirit of defiance and opposition, 
while still another class remain perfectly indifferent, knowing that no 
matter what they do or do not do, the mother's address will be no 
gentler. Such a mother would be shocked to hear any one say that 
she was unkind or that she does not love her child. She may have a 
very deep love for it, and if it were sick would most tenderly nurse 
it, or if it were in danger would risk her very life for its sake. But 
does her child know it? To some children such a thought of their 
mother's feeling for them would be a revelation almost beyond belief. 
A mother must learn to control herself if she would control her chil- 
dren. If a mother is angry with them and lets her temper get the 
upper hand, it doesn't need a very smart child to find it out. Chil- 



210 SOCIAL PURITY. 

dren are quick to see, and if the mother gets angry, why has she a 
right to chide anger in her children? The mother's exhibition of 
temper arouses the ugly in the child, and it becomes a question of 
whose will is the stronger. But let the mother, by kindly word and 
deed, by her sorrowful manner, show how the misconduct of her child 
has hurt her feelings, how quickly the child's better nature responds! 
By affectionate caress and loving words capitulation is made and 
peace sealed. 

Very often the fountains of speech open, and the heretofore reti- 
cent child expresses himself quaintly and eloquently, as did the little 
fellow in the following clipping: "A lady friend is intimately 
acquainted in a family in which there is a sweet, bright little boy of 
some five years, between whom and herself there has sprung up a 
very tender friendship. One day she said to him: 'Willie, do you 
love me?' 'Yes, indeed,' he replied with a kiss. 'How much?' she 
asked. 'Why, I love you — I love you up to the sky.' Just then his 
eye fell upon his mother. Flinging his arms about her, and kissing 
her passionately, he exclaimed: 'But, mamma, I love you 'way up to 
God.' " 

Harmless Caprices of Children. A child's requests, even though 
they be reasonable, are often denied simply because the mother thinks 
his whims should not be humored, and that if she does not discipline 
him in this respect, she is not doing her full duty. More often an 
offhand "No" is given as the easiest way to silence him and to get rid 
of a troublesome interruption. A child at the table prefers his own 
little cup and spoon, or a piece of bread instead of a pancake, or a 
glass of water instead of milk, or he would rather sit on the floor than 
on his little chair when at play, or he would rather wear his red 
stockings than his black, or he would rather watch for papa at the 
south window than at the east, or perhaps he would rather play with 
his tin horse than with his rubber ball, or look at the pictures in his 
own book than at those in Johnnie's book. Now, why in the name 
of reason, can't he do these harmless things? If there is really no 
good reason for denying these simple requests, except perhaps the 
mother s whim, they should be granted. If they have even the 
faintest show of reason in them, why not humor him? Why make 
an issue with a child on little things in which no moral principle is 



THE MOTHER AND THE CHILD 211 

involved, which* if granted, would work no greater harm than 
perhaps a slight inconvenience for the time being. If denied, he 
will, most likely, find something to do which in the end will consume 
more of the mother's time and make both parties more or less uncom- 
fortable. 

Respect for Children's Tastes. One who should know says: "If 
a child shows a marked distaste for any particular kind of food, it 
is wrong to force it to eat that kind. Firstly, such enforced obedi- 
ence creates ill-feeling; secondly, food which is disagreeable is likely 
to cause indigestion, and thirdly, there may be some organic idiosyn- 
crasy which renders that food obnoxious to the system. There is a 
case on record of a man on whom mutton seemed to act as a kind of 
irritant poison, and similar cases are not very rare. On the other 
hand, if a child has a strong desire for any one kind of food, it is 
unwise to deny it unless you can show a very good reason for so 
doing, when you should tell the child that reason as simply as pos- 
sible; as, for instance, 'No, dear, that will give you a pain in your 
stomach, or make you sick.' Never be misled into saying, 'Such 
things are not good for little boys and girls, ' for children do not see 
why grown-up people should have the good things which they are 
forbidden to enjoy. If, however, you give a reason which at once 
appeals to their own experience of the order of nature, they are ready 
to recognize it as a sound one." 

Teaching Children to Play. "Don't do this" and "Don't do 
that," "Run away," "Leave that alone," "Don't bother me," are 
phrases children hear continually. If mothers would take the time to 
show them how to amuse themselves instead of repeating these well- 
worn reproofs, they would spend less time in the end and would find 
the results very gratifying. 

A little attention given to a new play or a few minutes' instruction 
in a fresh occupation would means hours of quiet pleasure for the 
children, and rest and freedom for the mother. It is in the child's 
nature to play, his make-up requires it. It is his work, and who 
works harder than a healthy child at play? More grows out of a 
child's play than parents are apt to realize, and he should be taught 
how to make the most of it. If the child's playthings are left 
scattered about the floor, if his corner of the room is in a continual 



212 SOCIAL PURITY. 

state of disorder, if he can never find his cap or ball, the future 
belongings of that grown-up child will fare no better, unless a radical 
change takes place. If in childhood toys and clothing are carelessly 
misplaced or destroyed, the more valuable property of later years will 
not be likely to receive any more care or attention. If children are 
taught to play properly and to put away their playthings when 
through, if they are required to hang up their clothing when not in 
use, they will acquire methodical habits. 

Tact in Management. A little tact on the part of the mother will 
often produce very pleasing results. An illustration is given in one 
of our educational journals as follows: "The mother was sewing 
busily, and Josie, sitting on the carpet beside her, and provided with 
dull, rounded scissors and some magazines, was just as busily cutting 
out pictures. 

' 'It will litter up the carpet,' so said Aunt Martha, who had 
come for a cozy chat. Mamma knew this, but she knew also that a 
few minutes' work would make it all right again, and Josie was happy. 
All went well until the little boy found that he had cut off the leg of 
a horse that he considered a marvel of beauty. It was a real disap- 
pointment and grief to the little one. 'Mamma, see!' and, half-cry- 
ing, he held it up. 'Play he's holding up one foot,' the mother said 
quickly. 'Do real horses, mamma?' 'Oh, yes, sometimes.' 'I will,' 
he said, and sunshine chased away the cloud that in another minute 
would have rained down. It was a little thing, the mother's answer; 
but the quick sympathy, the ready tact, made all right. The boy's 
heart was comforted, and he went on with no jars on nerves or 
temper, and Auntie's call lost none of its pleasantness. 'I am tired 
of cutting pictures, mamma,' said Josie after awhile. 'Well, get 
your wagon and horse and play those bits of paper are wood and 
you are going to bring me a load. Draw it over to that corner 
by the stove and put them into the kindling box; play that's the 
wood-house. ' 

"Pleased and proud, the little teamster drew load after load till the 
papers were all picked up, without his ever thinking that he was 
doing anything but play. 'Well, I declare,' said Aunt Martha, 'old 
as I am, I've learned one thing to-day, and I wish Emily would come 
in and take lessons, I do!' " 



THE MOTHER AND THE CHILD. 213 

Nature Study. Martha Crombie Wood would have mothers teach 
children to observe nature carefully. She says, in the New Crusade : 
"Show your children the beauty of fatherhood and motherhood in 
nature, and respect and reverence for their own parents will increase. 
When they become men and women they will not enter lightly upon 
their duties as fathers and mothers, but with wisdom and reverence. 

"With little children the object of nature study is to lead them to 
see and to love the beautiful things around them, not to tear flowers 
into bits, kill bugs and butterflies, and rob the world of its music by 
making collections of birds' eggs. It is to train their eyes to see the 
beautiful colors, their ears to note the call of the birds and to make 
them sensitive to the delicate perfumes that float through the air. 
With the senses thus awake, life becomes a living fairy tale. 

"We do not know what great possibilities are sleeping in our chil- 
dren; one may be a poet, another an artist or musician — only waiting, 
as the form within marble waits for the sculptor's hand to set it free. 
Dainty bits of poetry, charming songs and beautiful pictures used in 
connection with nature work, develop a taste for the best literature, 
music and art. Fill the mind with choice flowers, and there will be no 
room for weeds. Teach the child to love the beautiful, and he will 
avoid evil." 

Self-Control. In another excellent article in the New Crusade, 
the writer asks what can be done at the moment when a child, who 
has lost control of himself in an excess of rage, lies kicking and 
screaming on the floor? In reply she quotes these suggestions of a 
prominent kindergartner: 

"Shall we punish him? As well put out fire with kerosene. 
Shall we reason with him? As well reason with Vesuvius in full flow. 
Shall we try to soothe him with kind words and caresses? As well 
pat a cyclone on the back and coax it to be still. No; I assert boldly 
that the only thing to be done at this juncture is to let the child 
alone, to leave the room entirely. 

"After the outburst is over, what shall be done? Obviously find 
out the cause of the disease, if possible, and, if we be the offenders, 
repent of it in anguish and bitterness and strive to cast out the devils 
which we ourselves invited in. 

"In the first place — this, I contend, is not weakness, but common 



214 SOCIAL PURITY. 

sense — try not to enter into controversies with him, avoid provocation 
and endeavor to ward off absolute issues. Distract his attention; try 
to get the desired result in some other way, but give no room for an 
outburst of temper if it can be avoided. 

"Don't fret him with groundless prohibitions; don't speak to him 
quickly and sharply, and never meet passion with passion. If you 
punish him when you are angry, he clearly sees that he, because he is 
small and weak, is being chastised for the same fault which you, 
being large and strong, may commit with impunity. 

"After one of these outbursts of temper, don't reprove and 
admonish him until he is rested. The demon has come down like a 
hurricane upon the waters of his spirit, and the noise of the waves 
must be stilled before the mind can listen to reason. When the sun 
comes out after the storm, is the time to note wreckage and take 
measures for future safety. Select some quiet, happy hour, then, in 
which you can gently warn him of his besetting sin and teach him to 
begin to guard against it. Until this time comes, and he is in a con- 
dition for counsel and punishment, an atmosphere of grief and disap- 
proval may be made to encompass him, which he will feel more keenly 
than spoken words. "And when the time for punishment does come, 
let us try to make it, as far as possible, the natural penalty, that 
which is the inevitable effect of given cause, for, as 'face answereth 
to face in water,' so the feeling of justice within the child to the 
eternal justice of world law. 

"Finally, let us be patient, but firm, and let slip no opportunity 
for teaching self-control and giving strength of will." 

Early Training. Much of the child's future, his weal or woe, 
depends upon the training of his early childhood. In counting up the 
blessings of his childhood, Mr. Ruskin reckoned these two for first 
good: peace and obedience. He had been taught the meaning of 
peace in thought, act and word by the example of his parents. He 
had never heard his father's or his mother's voice once raised in dis- 
pute of any kind, nor seen an angry glance in the eyes of either, nor 
had he ever seen a moment's trouble or disorder in any household 
matter. This is rather an uncommon testimony; would that it were 
more general! Next to this he estimated obedience; as a child he 
obeyed a word or a lifted finger of father or mother as a ship her 



THE MOTHER AND THE CHILD. 215 

helm without an idea of resistance. In fact, obedience was one of 
the very first lessons he learned. He tells that, one evening, while he 
was yet in his nurse's arms, he wanted to touch the tea urn, which 
was boiling merrily. He quaintly remarked, in relating the incident, 
that he supposed that "it was an early taste for bronzes," and he was 
very resolute in having his way about it. His mother told him to 
keep his fingers away from it, but he insisted upon touching the urn. 
The nurse would have taken him away, but his mother said, "Let 
him touch it, nurse." So he touched it to his sorrow, and says: 
"That was my first lesson in the meaning of the word liberty. It 
was the first piece of liberty I got, and the last which for some time I 
asked for." 

Good Manners. Good manners can not be learned in a day. They 
are the result of many days' continual practice. By constant use 
they become a part of one's self, a possession because of which we 
are agreeable or disagreeable. There are certain forms which society 
has agreed people must conform to, if they wish to appear well bred, 
but these are often not at all what we are naturally inclined to do. 
Children should early be taught the common forms by example and 
precept. The words, "please," "thank you" and "excuse me," even 
the little tots can readily learn to use, and what is more pleasing than 
a mannerly child? Patient perseverance in training will finally have 
its reward in well-bred young people. Constant repetition is required 
to keep children from relapsing into native barbarism, and mothers 
need not despair if they do not see the immediate results of their 
labors. 

Neatness and Order. Some one has said: "As a mother sows, so 
will the wife reap." Many wives of to-day are reaping a sorrowful 
harvest because of the sowing of an indulgent but thoughtless mother 
of years ago. I wonder how many mothers, when training their boys, 
think of the wives their boys may some time have. If a mother does, 
she has it in her power to greatly lessen or increase that wife's burden. 
"Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined," is an old but faithful 
saying, and many wives are proving the truth of it. 

A young wife, who takes great pride in doing the work of her little 
home, but whose duties are doubled by a careless, untidy husband 
— muddy rubbers worn into the house, collars and ties thrown upon 



216 SOCIAL 1PURITV. 

the sideboard, overcoat dropped upon the first convenient chair or 
couch — asks him to be more considerate and careful. He laughingly 
and thoughtlessly says: "Mother always picked up after me; why 
can't you?" It is selfish in a man, but the real fault goes further 
back; for, as he says, "Mother always picked up after me," and as the 
old saying is, "It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. " If that 
mother had been more mindful of her duty toward the boy whose early 
training had been intrusted to her, if she had been less thoughtless of 
the grave responsibility resting upon her, he would have been a 
different man. He would have grown up with a love for order and 
tidiness; he would have been more thoughtful and considerate, and 
throughout his life he would have conducted himself in a manner to 
cause the least possible trouble to others. A mother should teach her 
son to be thoughtful and considerate of herself; she should teach him 
to regard her comfort as well as his own; she should teach him to 
respect womanhood and not to impose irksome burdens upon those 
weaker than himself. She should teach him that by virtue of his 
greater strength he should seek to shield the weaker ones. 

A Word of Warning. A teacher of experience protests against 
the all too prevalent custom of allowing children to go away from 
home to sleep with their young friends or schoolmates. Mothers may 
well give heed to this protest. This teacher says: "When boarding 
round in the early days of my teaching, I was often pained and sur- 
prised to hear, through the unfinished walls of the settlers' new homes, 
strange revelations of prurient knowledge from the lips of my 
pupils whose parents supposed them to be sleeping. I remember 
hearing the most obscene language ^rom a boy whose parents were 
more than ordinarily high-minded and religious. 

His companion, a boy of his own age, had been allowed to stay 
all night with him, and was being tutored in a manner which must 
have pleased his satanic majesty. The visitor, whose mind retained 
much of childish purity, made some feeble protests against the filthy 
communications of the other boy, but his preceptor in vice parried 
them with the cunning art of the sophist. The pure mothers of each 
never would have believed their darling guilty of bad language or 
practices. There are, of course, other opportunities for evil com- 
munications, but none so dangerous as the seclusion of the bed- 



THE MOTHER AND THE CHILD. 21*7 

chamber in the night hours. Aside from this danger, there is no 
good excuse for children going from home to sleep. Let them occupy 
their own beds and sleep alone if possible. * 

Mothers are too prone to trust their children's associates because 
they belong to good families and have been well reared. Often 
they forget that their own little ones may be led astray or subjected 
to evil influences. The contagion of impurity arising from one child 
may spread through a school or neighborhood like a pestilence. 

Keep, then, a watchful eye on the children; guard them from 
exposure, but do not let your solicitude be known to them unless you 
are confronted by their guilt. Nothing so humiliates a high-minded 
child as to be suspected of uncleanness. 

Do not think more lightly of a son's impurity than of his sister's. 
Do not excuse obscenity from his lips by saying: 'Oh, he's a boy. 
We can expect no better of boys!' 

There are boys whose imaginations, fed by foul conversation, 
are as filthy as the stagnant pool; boys with faces upon which is 
stamped lasciviousness; boys with leering eyes and rakish demeanor. 
There are boys with healthy minds and unpolluted bodies — boys with 
clear, frank, honest eyes, revealing pure soul-depths within. Which 
of these shall your boy be, O mother? 

Shall your sons swell the ranks of those who are sowing to the 
wind to reap the whirlwind, who are scattering abroad rottenness and 
disease? Or shall they be pure men, going into the world to uplift 
and build up instead of tearing down and destroying? 

Do not be content for your daughters with that prudence which 
leads them to be careful of their reputation, but hedge about their 
childhood with all pure influences which shall encase them in inno- 
cence. Unaffected modesty is a girl's best safeguard. 

The young woman who can utter innuendoes or relate stories sug- 
gestive of impure thoughts, even in the presence of her most intimate 
girl friend, may be 'smart enough to look out for herself,' but she is 
not one a noble man would choose for a wife or who would elevate 
the home or society. 

Sometimes I think that the old-time delicacy and reserve were 
better than our modern free handling of social abuses. 'Ignorance' 
may not be innocence, but the reticence of a mother is to be preferred 



21$ SOCIAL PURITY. 

to the too free or careless treatment of those life mysteries which 
up-to-date authority says should be explained by parents to young 
children. I well remember an unhappy tragedy which occurred 
through the fatal mistakes of two sisters whose parents had reared 
them after the present progressive idea that there should be no mys- 
teries in the household, and am inclined to think that the old way was 
safest. 

Keeping Hold of the Boys. "There were once two boys in a 
certain home, and after a few happy years, one was taken into the 
Shepherd's arms. 

"The two boys and their mother had always knelt together for 
the bed-time prayer, and each had offered a simple petition. The 
first night there were only two to kneel, the sobbing voice of the 
lonely brother uttered but one sentence: 'Dear Lord, keep mother 
and me intimate.' 

"Said the mother, years after: 'I consecrated my life to answer 
that prayer.' 

"Did she have to give up anything? Yes; receptions and calls 
were secondary matters when the boy's friends needed entertaining. 

"Embroidered doilies and hand-painted screens were of no account 
whatever beside the cultivation of intimacy with her boy and the 
answering of his prayer. 'Always give me the first chance to help 
you, dear,' she would say; and he did. Whatever was dear to his 
boyish heart found glad sympathy in her. 

"Perhaps mothers do not always realize how soon a boy begins 
to think toward manhood, and so they treat him like a child to be 
watched and scolded instead of helped and trusted. 

"This mother's boy was just as active and self-willed as you often 
find. But she had a few rules that helped wonderfully. Shall I 
copy them for you? 

"i. I shall pray and work to be patient. 

"2. I will strive to 'grow in grace and in the knowledge of God.' 

"3. No matter what happens, I will try to hold my temper and my 
tongue. 

' '4. I will try never to scold and never to reprove or punish in anger. 

"5. I will listen patiently and tenderly to my boy's side of a griev- 
ance. 




Copyright, 1903, by J. A. Ilcitci 

THE OFFSPRING OF IDLE, IMPURE AND IGNORANT PARENTS. 




Copyright, 1903, by J. A. Hertel. 

THE OFFSPRING OF VIRTUOUS AND INTELLIGENT PARENTS. 



THE MOTHER AND THE CHILD. 219 

"You will notice that these rules are to govern the mother instead 
of the boy; and is not that the secret of success? Mother, do you 
want to keep your boy? Then control yourself. Not the fashionable 
attempt at stoicism that says it is not 'good form' to display emotion, 
but the real holding of one's self in hand. 

"Fashion would tie the mettlesome steed fast. Control harnesses 
him to life and lets Christ hold the reins. 

"This mother's boy made many a blunder; he had his days of 
waywardness and times of unreasonableness, but never a time when 
he was not sure that his mother was ready to listen, advise and help. 
There were times when his impulsiveness made him sore trouble, but 
the first place he turned for help was to the tender, loyal 'mother- 
friend, ' and he was sure of comfort. 

"Do you think it paid? When she reads in the papers the theories 
on 'How to Get Hold of the Boys,' she thanks God she has never 
lost her hold on hers. And in the answering of the boyish prayer the 
mother has not only grown more and more intimate with him, but 
both have grown intimate with Christ. Mother, you have no 'charge 
to keep' half so sacred as the heart of your boy. Are you true to 
your trust?" 

Mother's Relationship with Grown Daughters. "Too many 
mothers do not realize that there are any problems in their relation- 
ship with their grown daughters," says Temple Bailey, writing of 
Some Mothers and Their Daughters. ' ' "The training of little children 
is discussed as an all-important topic. Why should not the delicate 
questions which must arise in every household where two or more 
women of strong personality live in constant and close contact receive 
just as careful consideration? It is after the school-days that the 
troubles begin. The mother who has clung to her little girl fails to 
recognize the needs of the growing woman, and is hurt by any inde- 
pendent action on the part of the daughter; while the daughter, in her 
eagerness to grasp at the best in the new life, forgets the deference 
which is due to the mother. Out of these conditions small clashings 
ensue, to end too often in complete discord. It is just at this time that 
the mother must bring all her love and diplomacy to bear. She must 
endeavor to know her daughter's nature, and to understand its possi- 
bilities and limitations. She will find that her problems are not the 

15 



220 SOCIAL PURITY. 

problems of her mother nor of her grandmother, for the girl of to-day 
is not like the girl of yesterday, and she must be studied from a differ- 
ent standpoint. The most unpleasant of all things American is the 
dominant daughter. Brilliant, restless and discontented, she demands 
all things as her right rather than as a privilege. The time-honored tale 
of the mother at the wash-tub and the daughter at the piano is verified 
in the mental attitude of many households. There are two things that 
the mother of such a daughter should cultivate — a quiet dignity which 
shall force the girl's respect and a sympathy which shall win her 
heart. She must be interested in that which interests the younger 
mind. And she must not be dominated. Her self-assertion need not 
and should not be radical, but she must be queen of her own house- 
hold, yielding her scepter to none, and especially not to her inexpe- 
rienced daughter. ' ' 

A Sensible Mother. "She has daughters and in them she is 
blessed — largely because she brought them up aright, and now they 
are going in that way. For many years — she is not wealthy — she 
toiled for those daughters, making their clothes, teaching them, cook- 
ing little pies in patty-pans for them, sewing buttons on boots stubbed 
out at the toes, picking up their playthings after the tired little ones 
were safely tucked into cribs and trundle-beds at night. 

"Now they are grown and she is not young. Does she, like the 
average American mother, continue these attentions to her children's 
welfare? Does she stay in the hot kitchen frying oysters, while they 
play the piano, or paint, or entertain callers? Does she remain at 
home ironing muslin frocks, while the girls disport themselves at 
picnics in other muslin frocks? Does she go to bed at night too tired 
to read the daily paper, while the girls perfect their education at 
women's clubs and attend meetings of Browning and Shakespeare 
classes? 

"No, indeed, she does not. It is now she who entertains callers, 
goes to picnics and belongs to clubs. She has time for church work, 
for all the social gatherings in the town in which she resides. She 
is young and handsome; her girls are proud of her and rightfully; she 
dresses in perfect taste, with plenty of new gowns, and household 
cares sit lightly upon her. 

"The reason is that these cares are relegated to the daughters for 



THE MOTHER AND THE CHILD. 221 

whom she worked so many years. They now rise and build the fires, 
they sweep and dust the rooms, they prepare the meals, they have 
'the dishes' on their minds. Mamma is care-free; she comes to her 
meals when she is called, and when the last cup of coffee is drained, 
she folds her napkin and goes away serenely to the parlor, or her best 
bonnet if an outing is to follow. 

"Every time I visit in this lovely home I reflect on the excellent 
points of this plan. The girls are learning to keep house, and their 
mother is reaping a reward for her own years of work. In days to 
come, if all the girls go to make homes of their own, she will take up 
the cares of her house again with a merry smile, cheered and rested 
by her years of vacationizing. 

"As for the girls, they like it. The sense of importance given by 
the care of a house is never unwelcome to any young girl, especially if 
mamma does not retain such an amount of interest as to be contin- 
ually reminding of the old regime\ 

"And aren't they proud of the mother? Well, I should say they 
are! Far more than if she remained in the oyster-frying business and 
didn't wear pretty frocks with bits of real lace in neck and sleeves and 
a Spanish mantilla on her head when she goes to literary club meet- 
ings and Browning societies." 

Tact Required. Much tact is required in the management of the 
grown-up daughter. It prevents estrangement and softens the rough 
edges of unpleasant facts which the mother sometimes must of neces- 
sity speak to her daughter. Though the truth must be told for the 
daughter's good, a tactful mother will not irritate the wound it makes. 
Do not keep the alabaster box of your love for her sealed, now that 
she is no longer a child. She needs the expression of your affection 
now even more than she did when a child. Say the kindly word of 
praise that your heart suggests. Give her that genuine sympathy 
which will win and retain her confidence. You have gone over the 
path that she now treads. Though you can not remove the stones 
which lie in the way, you may show her how to avoid the bruises 
they make. In the forward journey your experience may be of untold 
value to her. Too soon these ties may be broken, and your oppor- 
tunity gone. Make it possible for your daughter to say: "Thy 
gentleness hath made me great." 



222 SOCIAL PURITY. 

The Sacrifices of Children. The self-sacrificing mother is known 
to every one. Her uncomplaining self-denial, her fond devotion, her 
long-suffering and patience have been extolled by voice and pen, and 
may well merit our appreciation. But when have the sacrifices of 
children been told? They want to play out on the lawn, but are kept 
in the house for fear they will soil their clothes. They want to paste 
kites, but that would "muss up" the kitchen table. The little girl 
would rather have her hair done in a braid, but her mother wants her 
to "look pretty," and does it up in curl papers every night. They 
want a dog or a kitten, but mother says the porches would be all 
tracked up with mud. Where the ideas of a child conflict with those 
of the parents, have you ever noticed how resignedly, and often even 
sweetly, the little one gives up? His little schemes are overrided, his 
plans set at naught, yet he is expected to keep sunny and good-natured. 

Child's Genius. Very often the child's genius in certain directions 
is repressed by a parent whose mind is made up that he shall follow 
a certain line of business, for which perhaps the child has no fitness 
and which would be actually repulsive to him. Mothers put a veto 
upon music lessons for a daughter whose fingers fairly ache for the 
touch of a piano; or they say "No" to the boy whose pencil disfig- 
ures the walls with rough but expressive caricatures, without provid- 
ing proper means for the expression of his inborn talent; or the 
mother would see her son in the pulpit; or the father would place him 
by his side in the counting-room; or perhaps the ambitious parents 
have dreams of his appearance in the legislative halls of the nation. 

While parents labor blunderingly to root out the child's instincts 
and intuitions, he lays aside his own wishes and plans, and with what 
effort he can command, seeks to follow the career outlined by his 
devoted though mistaken parents. 

The child's individuality is so different from that of the parents' 
that they can scarcely conceive that that of their child may tend to 
just the opposite extreme. If the child has a strong character, while 
he sacrifices his action to the will of the parent, his whole soul wars 
at the crossing of the God-given purpose and adaptation. Thus a 
child endowed with the appreciation of the beautiful in nature and art 
and the power of its expression, is set to learn a trade. There are 
men in the pulpit who are changed from year to year because of their 



THE MOTHER AND THE CHILD. 223 

inefficiency, who would have made first-class mechanics. There are 
physicians who would have better tilled the soil. There are teachers 
who would have done better service at the bedside of the sick. 
Parents measure their children to a mold of their own choosing, very 
often to find too late that they do not fit. Parents sometimes abuse 
the privilege of their office. They certainly do when they manifestly 
thwart the purpose of the Almighty. 

The Mother's Sacrifice. The mother most surely desires the best 
good for her child, and if she will carefully watch the unfoldings of 
his nature, she may note in what direction his talent tends, and will 
modify her own desire to correspond. His truest and noblest develop- 
ment is her greatest object in life, and marks the true-hearted mother. 

We are often puzzled to know what to do for the Master, and, like 
the knight of old, seek far and wide for some good to do, when right 
by our side lies the very work which the Lord himself would have us 
do. Did he not say, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me?" This, then, is 
sacrifice, the giving of self. We may shower gifts upon our children, 
but Lowell, with fine perception, says, "The gift without the giver 
is bare." 

Margaret Sangster tells the story of a genuine mother's love and 
sacrifice in the following little poem: 

For Love's Sake. 

"Sometimes I am tempted to murmur 

That life is flitting away, 
With only a round of trifles 

Filling each busy day; 
Dusting nooks and corners, 

Making the house look fair, 
And patiently taking on me 

The burden of woman's care. 

"Comforting childish sorrows, 

And charming the childish heart 
With the simple song and story 

Told with a mother's art; 
Setting the dear home table 

And clearing the meal away, 
And going on little errands 

In the twilight of the day. 



224 SOCIAL PURITY. 

*'One day is just like another! 

Sewing and piecing well , 
Little jackets and trousers, 

So neatly that none can tell 
Where are the seams and joinings. 

Ah! the seamy side of life 
Is kept out of sight by the magic 

Of many a mother and wife! 

"And oft when ready to murmur 

That life is flitting away, 
With the self -same round of duties 

Filling each busy day, 
It comes to my spirit sweetly 

With the grace of a thought divine: 
'You are living, toiling, for love's sake, 

And the loving should never repine. 

11 'You are guiding the little footsteps 

In the way they ought to walk; 
You are dropping a word for Jesus 

In the midst of your household talk; 
Living your life for love's sake 

Till the homely cares grow sweet, 
And sacred the self-denial 

That is laid at the Master's feet.' " 

Don'ts for Mothers of Girls. Don't keep your girls in the house 
all the time. Let them play out in the fresh air. 

Don't forget to thank your girl for some special pains she has taken 
to please you; do it heartily too. 

Don't allow any accomplishment to take the place of an essential 
in your daughter's education. Let the accomplishment be an addition. 

Don't encourage your girl in the use of slang, nor permit her to 
speak insolently to any one. 

Don't remove all responsibility from your girl's shoulders if you 
value her future. 

Don't overburden her with tedious, worrisome tasks just to keep 
her employed. 

Don'ts for Mothers of Boys. " Don't keep nagging your boy. 

Don't treat your boy as a hardened criminal if you discover him 
in sin. 



THE MOTHER AND THE CHILD. 225 

Don't forget that if you make your boy think he is going to the 
devil he won't be apt to disappoint you. 

Don't forget that by treating your boy like a gentleman you will 
do much toward making him one. 

Don't deny your boy the healthful, restraining influence of plenty 
of outdoor sports and athletics. There is a whole sermon in the 
phrase 'muscular Christianity.' 

Don't make his room a sort of junk-shop for all the odds and ends 
of furniture too shabby or old-fashioned to be used anywhere else in 
the house. 

Don't be above apologizing to your boy if occasion arises. He 
will honor you for it. 

Don't have a thing in the house too good for him to enjoy and 
share with you, and don't make him use the back stairs in order to 
save the front-hall carpet. 

Don't shut him entirely out of the confidential talks concerning 
home, business and neighborhood affairs, but teach him to respect the 
confidence. 

"Lastly, don't think a child hopeless because it betrays some very 
bad habits. We have known children who seem to have been born 
thieves and liars, so early did they display these most undesirable 
traits of character; yet, we have lived to see them become noble men 
and women and ornaments to society. We must confess they had 
wise, affectionate parents. Whatever else you may be compelled by 
your circumstances in life to deny your child, give it what it most 
values — plenty of love." 

Do's for Mothers of Boys and Girls. Do encourage your boys to 
speak politely to their sisters. 

Do encourage your girls to make home pleasant for their brothers. 

Do stimulate your girls to take physical outdoor exercise. 

Do persuade your boys to be kind to dumb animals. 

Do teach your children to speak the plain truth without exaggera- 
tion. 

Do teach them to stand firmly for that which they know to be right. 

Do encourage your children in the open, frank confession of a 
fault. 

Do try to gain your children's confidence and to keep it. 



226 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Do sympathize with your children's struggles to do right, however 
short they may fall of it. 

Do take time to visit your children in the school-room. 

Do tell your boy that a cigarette or a cigar does not make him 
more manly. 

Do show your love for both boys and girls. 




Copyright, 1903, by J. A. Hertel. 

EVENING PRAYER-THEN READY FOR BED. 



Who can estimate the power and influence, either for good or bad, that may be wrapped up in an 
innocent child! 

The familiar prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep," taught at mother's knee, has been the means 
of bringing home many a prodigal son and daughter. 



CHAPTER X. 

A PHASE OF PARENT STUDY. — IN THE HOME. 

For a number of years our scientists and educational leaders have 
discussed the subject of psychology, but not until recent years has the 
common mind dared to reach out into its mazes and labyrinths. 

Since the subject has assumed the less euphonious title of "child 
study," all kinds and conditions of people are giving it more or less 
attention. 

Scarce a teachers' association, a woman's club or a mothers' 
meeting but has this subject on one or more of its programs. The 
University of Chicago supports a chair for the promotion of this par- 
ticular branch, and a paper published in the same city is devoted to 
its discussion. 

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union was the first organiza- 
tion in this country to take up this study in its practical bearings. 

The Greatest Thing in the World. Professor Drummond says, 
"The greatest thing in the world is love," but to us it seems that the 
greatest thing in the world is the embodiment of love — a little child, 
for we are told, "And a little child shall lead them." 

It is not our purpose to be confined to the study of the child, but 
rather to reverse the observation. 

Back of the child is the parent. Let us turn the glass upon him 
for a time, and let the term parent include both father and mother. 

All will agree in the general statement that a child's best friends 
are his parents; but perhaps there may be some dissent to this state- 
ment, that the parent as often sins against the child as does the child 
against the parent. At any rate, it may do us good to think about it. 

Have you ever thought how many times you have said "No" to 
your little one's request when you had no particular reason for doing 
so? Have you ever noticed how many times you have rejected his 
carefully thought-out plans and wiped them away as carelessly as 
dust upon the floor? Have you ever observed how you have post- 
poned his proper and even laudable projects from time to time, sub- 

227 



228 SOCIAL PURITY. 

ject to somebody else's convenience, and perhaps never fulfilled them 
at all? Do you wonder that he sometimes becomes fretful, impatient 
and even rebellious? 

What grown person would you dare to treat in the same way? 
But you do not mean to be unkind; you love him as does no other. 
Neither does he mean to be fretful, nor disobedient, nor rebellious. 
Let me illustrate by a little story from the pen of that ready writer, 
Dr. Mary Wood Allen, in the New Crusade: 

A Lesson from Eeal Life. "A young merchant, intent on business, 
while rushing across the city on his wheel met with a collision. The 
result was numerous bruises, sprains and dislocations, which laid him 
aside from active duties for a few days. The mental currents, which 
had been rushing out along lines of business activity, were suddenly 
cheeked, and boiled and seethed in irritation and rebellion. 

' 'It would not have been so hard,' he said, 'if I could have been 
let down easy, but this sudden stoppage from a point of intense 
activity to a state of enforced quiescence is almost unbearable.' 

"One evening, while lying upon his sofa, he noticed that his little 
boy, a bright little fellow of four years, was remaining up after his 
usual bedtime, and, calling the nurse, he commanded her to take the 
child to bed. The little fellow resisted with kicks and screams, was 
scolded and slapped by his father into sullen quiescence, and carried 
off rebelliously to bed. 

" *I declare,' said the father, *that child is getting to be incorrig- 
ible. I shall certainly have to take him severely in hand. ' 

"This remark was addressed to a friend, a woman of experience, 
who, sitting in the room, had been a witness to the proceeding. The 
comment of the father opened the way for the expression of thoughts 
which were still in her mind. 

' 'Did you notice what the child was doing when you ordered him 
to bed?' she said. 

' 'Why, no, not particularly. He was playing, I believe.' 
' He was very busy,' said the friend. 'He had a grocery store in 
one corner of the room, a telephone in another, and a magnificent 
train of cars with a coal-scuttle engine. He was taking orders from 
the telephone, doing up packages in the grocery store, and delivering 
them by train. He had just very courteously assured Mrs. Brown that 



A PHASE OF PARENT STUDY. 

she should surely have a pound of rice pudding and a bushel of baked 
potatoes, and had done up a pumpkin pie for Mrs. Smith, when he 
was rudely disturbed in his business by Sarah and carried ignomini- 
ously off to bed. He resented, and probably if he could have put his 
thoughts into words, would have said just what you did a short time 
ago, that if he "could have been let down easy it wouldn't have been 
so hard, but to be stopped suddenly, right in the midst of business, 
was unbearable. ' ' Now he knows that to-morrow the grocery store 
will have been demolished, the telephone will have disappeared, the 
train will have been wrecked; and if he goes into business again, he 
will have to begin at the foundation. You think your experience is 
hard enough, but you know there are others at your place of business 
who are looking after things as well as they can. How would you 
feel if you knew that your store was demolished and had to be built 
up again from the foundation?' 

1 'Oh, well,' said the father, 'but that is business. The boy was 
only playing. ' 

' 'The boy's occupation to him was business just as much as yours 
is to you. His mental activities were just as intense; the sudden 
checking of his currents of thought was just as hard to bear; and his 
kicks and screams were no more censurable in him than have been 
your exclamations and frettings during the time that you have been 
ignominiously sent to bed. You have been worrying over plans that 
were suddenly confused because of your accident; he goes to bed 
feeling that Mrs. Brown wilLbe disappointed because she did not get 
her rice pudding, and it is just as hard for him to bear this as for you 
to bear your experience. ' 

' 'Well, what would you have me do?' said the father. 'Would 
you let the child sit up all night because he is interested in his play?' 
" 'No, but you might have "let him down easy." Suppose you 
had given him fifteen minutes in which to rearrange his thoughts. 
Suppose you had called him to you and said, "Well, Mr. Grocer, I 
would like to give you some orders, but I see that it is about time for 
your store to close. I shall have to wait until to-morrow." No 
doubt the little grocer would have been willing to have filled your 
orders at once, but you could have said, "Oh, no; stores must close on 
time so that the clerks can go home. There will be plenty of time 



230 SOCIAL PURITY. 

to-morrow. I see you still have some goods to deliver, and your 
engineer is getting very anxious to reach the end of his run. In about 
fifteen minutes the engine must go into the round-house and the 
engineer must go home and go to bed so as to be ready for work 
to-morrow." Do you not see that this would have turned the 
thoughts of the child into just the line that you wanted him to go? 
He would have been glad to close up his store, because that is the 
way men do; and as a little engineer at the end of a "run," he would 
have been very glad to go to bed and rest. Instead of a rebellious 
child, sobbing himself sulkily to sleep, with an indefinable feeling of 
injustice rankling in his heart, as a happy little engineer he would have 
gone willingly to bed, to think with loving-kindness of the father who 
had sympathized with him and helped him to close his day's labors 
satisfactorily. ' 

" 'I see,' said the father, 'and I am ashamed of myself. If I could 
walk, I'd go to him and ask him to forgive me. Sarah, bring Robbie 
here.' 

11 'He's asleep,' was the reply. 

" 'Never mind, bring him anyhow.' 

"The girl lifted the sleeping boy and carried him to his father's 
arms. The child's face was flushed and tear-stained, his little fists 
were clinched, and the long-drawn, shuddering breath showed with 
what a perturbed spirit he had entered into sleep. 

"'Poor little chap!' said the father, penitently. He kissed the 
moist forehead and whispered, 'Can you forgive your father, my boy?' 

"The child did not awaken, but his hands gently unclosed, his 
whole body relaxed, and, nestling his head more closely against his 
father's breast, he raised one chubby hand and patted the father's 
cheek. It was as if the loving voice had penetrated through the 
incasing flesh to the child's spirit, and he had answered love with 
love." 

A pathetic little scene appropriately entitled "Rebuke" is drawn 
by a writer in the London Academy: "A chill, dark autumnal morning. 
A breakfast table with an overcrowded tribe of clamorous children. 
A worried mother, and an irritable father muttering something about 
'No decent elbow-room.' A small child uplifts solemn eyes from his 
plate and says: 'Hadn't one of us better die?' " 



A PHASE OF PARENT STUDY. 231 

And yet we dare say these parents really loved their little brood, 
and would have been sorry to take the elbow-room if one of them had 
made it as suggested by the solemn-eyed child. A sick, overworked 
mother once said in a moment of irritation, "I wish they were all 
dead," referring to her three little children, who were a great care to 
her enfeebled body. But she bitterly repented that speech in after 
years. 

A Child's Individuality. "There is no shrine so often and so 
rudely violated as the soul of a child. We forget that the child we 
call ours has a distinct human entity, ' ' is the position taken by Elaine 
Goodale Eastman, writing of "Child-culture in the Home," in the 
Woma?is Home Companion. "We say in defense to this that we 
merely act under the necessity laid upon us as parents and guardians 
to conquer infant obstinacy and to check youthful vanity and egotism. 
Undoubtedly (and this fact, too, has its pathos), we are obliged, or 
think we are, by duty and conventionality, to run counter to most of 
the spontaneous wishes of our children and to put a damper upon their 
earliest aspirations. But this unhappy compulsion is, as it seems to 
me, a strong reason for using more and not less delicacy and consid- 
eration in our manner of discharging these unpleasant obligations. 
Constant snubbing is really not good for all children any more than 
for ourselves. Some natures are dwarfed and discouraged by it. 
There is a species of self-love which to wound is well-nigh fatal. If 
the average child of well-meaning parents could speak his inmost soul 
I believe he would beg for less love and more respect. Over-fondness 
is often demoralizing, but sincere respect is always elevating, and, 
strange to say, it is appreciated by the youngest child. I well remem- 
ber that, as a child, I liked best the society of those rare persons who 
treated me as if I, too, were grown up! There was no affectation on 
either side; it was simply that they did not too visibly condescend to 
too openly overrule my years, and that in all my intercourse with them 
I was able to preserve my self-respect. I advise mothers to have the 
self-control and the nice sense of justice to refrain from claiming and 
commanding the child, soul and body, as if he were a subject and 
inferior being, and to recognize in that child, however young, the 
natural human right to freedom of thought and to a degree of freedom 
in action. ' ' 



232 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Children are often charged with disobedience and stubbornness 
when there is no conscious volition in the case. It is merely a nerv- 
ous tension resulting in a reaction which they are powerless to con- 
trol. What the child needs is soothing of the nerves, not the addi- 
tional excitement of a punishment. 

We recall an instance of a boy of about twelve years old, who, in 
some careless way, had irritated his father. His father, who was 
easily put out, reproved him in rather a rough fashion. It was plain 
that the boy was badly frightened; but while the tears stood in his 
eyes, he tried to be brave and to assume a pleasant look. But the 
smile would not blend with fright, and the father interpreted it as an 
"impudent grin," but we are sure that impudence had no place in the 
heart of that boy at that time. 

Outrageous Training. "Tell them what you got yesterday," said 
a mother to her six-year-old boy, when calling at a friend's. The little 
fellow, to the credit of his human nature, refrained from obeying and 
turned away his embarrassed face. The senseless mother wanted 
him to report that he was whipped the day before for some misde- 
meanor, all of which she herself published. For shame! The great- 
est marvel in the world is that children do not turn out worse than 
they do with the outrageous training so many of them have. The 
persistence of good in the human soul is the wonder of the ages. 

Mistaken Sympathy. This brings us to the thought of sympathy 
which a parent has or ought to have with his children. And there 
are two phases to this: there is danger from too much or injudicious 
sympathy as well as from too little. 

A teacher in the public school gives this experience: "A friend of 
mine had in her room a little boy who was so nervous that he could 
not control his muscles, and sometimes the other children were 
amused by the twitching of his face. Under the circumstances, his 
writing was extremely poor, and, in fact, poor work in everything was 
accepted for some time as best that he could do. Suddenly it dawned 
upon the teacher that she was not doing the child justice; that all of 
her sympathy was with his infirmity instead of with his possibilities, 
and she concluded to try another method of treatment. She would 
let her love and interest go out to what the boy should be. So when 
he next presented a paper with a writing exercise, which was very bad 



A PHASE OF PARENT STUDY. 233 

indeed for a child of that grade, and asked if it wasn't pretty good, 
she said, in a smiling, kindly way, 'No, I think it is more like chicken 
tracks than like writing.' 'But don't you think it is pretty good for 
me y because you know I'm nervous.' 'No, I do not think it is the 
best you can do; I think you .are a bright little boy and can do better. 
Will you not try again?' From that day he began to improve. The 
teacher encouraged him to think himself as nearly like the other 
children as possible and infused this spirit into the whole school, 
until, instead of being an object of curiosity or amusement, all the 
children regarded his affliction as a passing thing and gave their sym- 
pathy and help toward the overcoming of his defect. There was 
much to contend with, because when the normal was expected and 
demanded, the teacher was sometimes greeted with 'But you know I 
am nervous, my mamma says so, the doctor says so, ' but as a result 
of her patient, faithful efforts, one day the mother came to school 
saying, 'What have you been doing to my child? He is so much 
improved, his nervousness is nearly gone.' " 

But perhaps the greater sin is in the omission. The tendency in 
the parent is to look for perfect work in the tasks assigned, and if not 
found, he is usually inclined to fault-finding. We are apt to forget 
that our work may be even more imperfect in the eyes of our Father 
than are our children's to us. God accepts our faithfulness in the 
effort to do well, and ought we not to do the same? 

An Exacting Father. We have in mind the experience of some 
young people whose father was of a very exacting but just nature; 
that is, he meant to be just and true as a parent. He loved his chil- 
dren devotedly, but seemed to have no power of expressing it in words 
in their presence. 

No parent would do more to shield them from danger, no one 
would sacrifice more for their education or for their real advancement 
in the pursuits of life. The children loved him, and knew that all his 
foresight and sacrifices were the outcome of his love for them, yet 
they longed for some expression of their father's appreciation of their 
efforts in various lines. Many times they would gladly have opened 
to him their hearts and thanked that father for the sacrifices he was 
making for them, had they known how. But the avenues of speech 
had so long been unused to carry such messages that something in 



234 SOCIAL PURITY. 

the nature of an explosion was needed to break up the natural course. 
A few instances may be noted which you may mate in your own 
observation or experience. 

One day three of these boys, now grown to young men, were sit- 
ting on the porch in the cool of the evening, wondering what the 
father would say of their work which they had just finished. They 
had agreed among themselves that they would take the utmost pains 
to do the job well and as they thought would be the most pleasing 
to their father. Now as they reviewed their work, they could see 
nothing to be done to improve it. One of them said: "But father 
will find something not right about it." Another one said: "I don't 
see how he can; I've looked it all over for the purpose of finding 
something wrong. " Another said: "Well, I'll bet the ice-cream that 
this time he won't find anything." "Agreed," said the first. 

Shortly after, the father came and sat down beside them. As he 
looked over their work, about the first thing he said was: "That tree 
isn't bandaged straight." 

The boys looked knowingly at each other, and it probably would 
have needed a carpenter's square to discover the true line. 

The daughter in this home was painstaking and conscientious to 
do her best both for herself and for the honor of her parents. 

Often in her work at school she would say: "Oh, if 1 only knew 
what father thought of it ! " When congratulated by friends upon her 
success, she would say to herself: "I would give more for one word 
from father than for all that every one else might say. ' ' 

But she finally came to the conclusion that if he did not say 
anything she would take that to mean that he thought she was doing 
as well as he could expect. But the word came at last. 

When about to give her in marriage, he said: "Daughter, be as 
faithful a wife to your husband as you have been a child to me." Do 
you wonder that these words have lived in the mind of that daughter 
to her old age? 

Starving for Sympathy. Some children actually starve for sym- 
pathy. Let us come into the lives of our children. Let us as parents 
take time to be interested in their affairs, then we shall be spared the 
bitter pain of being shut out of their confidence and feeling that they 
have grown away from us when they most need us. 



A PHASE OF PARENT STUDY. 235 

"How often are men heard to say: 'I leave the training of my 
children entirely to my wife;' or, 'I never interfere with the discipline; 
my wife attends to all that.' Another type of father still assumes in 
his family the role of lord high executioner. 

'If you don't stop that,' says the fond, foolish mother, 'I will 
tell your father on you.' 

' In some families there is no threat so dreadful, and I have known 
a father to tell laughingly, as if it were a good joke, of the poor, scared 
little faces which were lifted to his when he appeared suddenly among 
them with a rattan in hand, inquiring whether there were 'any whip- 
pings to be dealt out that afternoon. ' 

Alas, how far away these poor earthly fathers are from the 
fatherly ideal which is set forth in the Bible! And how can they illus- 
trate to a child anything of the fatherhood of God? 

A father ought to be friendly with his children; he ought to be 
interested in every interest of theirs, right down to their dollies and 
their bats and their balls. Nothing which concerns them should be 
too trivial for his notice. A father ought not only to love his chil- 
dren, but he should show that he loves them. He ought to prove 
this so convincingly that, whatever happens, they can never doubt 
their father's affection for them. 

A father prided himself on his kindness to his children. It was 
his boast that he never struck one of the whole five. What would he 
have said had he been told that his words injured that child as much 
as a beating would? Although he never scolded or said rough things, 
he was continually manifesting a lack of sympathy with the little ones. 
The blows were falling directly on loving childish hearts. 

He often wondered that the older children never took him into 
their plans. He loved his children dearly; he would have enjoyed 
being a companion of the big boys and girls, but he had turned them 
away again and again when they were tiny children, the time he might 
have obtained the key to their hearts." 

A Father's Experience. This experience related by a man of 
worth is the experience of many another as he recalls his boyhood 
days: 

"I was afraid of my father. So were my brothers. We loved 
him, but there was no community of interest between us then, nor in 

16 



236 SOCIAL PURITY. 

later life. Yet he was a capable man, whose intimacy would have 
conferred a charm to our boyhood and a benefit to our character that 
nothing in after life can compensate for. 

I have observed hundreds of families, only to find that my boyish 
experience is all too common. The father may be 'too busy' to get 
acquainted with his sons. 'I have no time to spend with my boys as 
you do, ' is often said to me. Then make time. You will accomplish 
more in your business by so planning that you may enjoy the renewed 
vigor that comes from sensible play or intelligent woik with your 
children, especially the boys. 

Your dignity and parental authority will not suffer if you use 
good judgment. 'Familiarity breeds contempt' only when it ought 
to! Most people lack tact, partly because it was not developed in 
youth. Intimacy between father and son is a school of tact in which 
teacher and child benefit equally. A father said to me in despair: 'I 
can't get at my boy; somehow we don't understand each other at 
all. ' That man would resent it if told that he did not possess suf- 
ficient tact to get at some set of men with whom he wished to do 
business! The boy is a little man — in many ways not so much smaller 
than ourselves as we may think. 

'When my boys get along in their 'teens, I shall go off with them 
a good deal and devote time and thought to training their character, ' 
said another friend, whose only hours at home are mostly spent in 
bed. He is deceiving himself. We must grow up with the boys, or 
they get away from us. 

The first time my youngest boy did a job of painting at the house, 
he made a mess of it, though I had shown him how. Mother said: 
'You could have hired it done better, pater.' 

'Yes, but the boy would not have had the experience, nor I the 
fun.' 

Mother looked thoughtful, and then remarked: 'How true that 
is! It is little enough our boys have to do, because we live in a town 
house, but this is all the more reason for encouraging them to do 
everything possible. ' Now that boy can do more about the house than 
I can — almost as much as his mother. Experience is about the only 
good teacher. 

Let the father make the first advances toward a community of 



A PHASE OF PARENT STUDY. 237 

interests, and the way in which the boys respond will surprise and 
delight him. The benefit will be mutual. The father often gets 
more out of it than the boys. It keeps him young, gives him a new 
view of life, keeps him in touch with childhood hopes and fears, and 
in sympathy with the enthusiasm and aspirations of youth. The 
bigger a man's character the more he will profit by such association; 
the smaller the father's nature the more he needs it. 

The personal relations of fathers and sons are intended to supple- 
ment each other. Nature meant it that way. But here, as in other 
respects, how often are we blind to the joys and responsibilities 
nature offers!" 

Encouragement Needed. There are some natures so constituted 
that they must have sympathy. They never have enough and they 
make a large return for what is given. This little incident from The 
American Boy shows how some children need sympathy and encour- 
agement, and how largely their failure in certain lines is due to the 
lack of it: 

"Tom was a little fellow who went to a settlement school, and the 
school had furnished most, if not all, the real happiness he had ever 
known. Here the good in him was developed until somehow he began 
to forget the bad. 

He was a sturdy little athlete, and won most of the races and 
other contests of strength. Through various winsome traits he had 
found his way to the heart of his teacher, and she was always inter- 
ested in his success. 

One day arrangements had been made for a foot race. Several 
boys were to run, although everybody was sure that Tom would win. 

The preliminaries were settled, the race started, and the boys 
were off over the course. Tom led clear and free for about half the 
distance; then, to the surprise of every one, Johnny began to gain 
upon him. Jim was just behind Johnny, and running vigorously. 
Tom's feet seemed to grow heavy, and Johnny steadily decreased the 
distance between them, until finally he shot past Tom, and, with a 
sudden spurt, gained the goal fully five yards in advance. Jim was 
close behind, and he too sped over the line a little ahead of Tom, 
but enough to give him second place and to leave Tom out of the 
race. 



238' SOCIAL PURITY. 

'Why, Tom, what was the matter?' asked his teacher, as the 
defeated boy came toward her with the tears streaming down his face. 

His only answer was a sob. 

'Tell me what happened, Tom.' 

Tom dug his knuckles into his eyes to dry his tears, and tried to 
tell his story. 

'I started all right, you know ' 

'Yes, you led them all.' 

'But when I got halfway there the boys began to call, "Go t, 
Johnny, you're second." "Hustle, Jim, you're gaining." "Run, 
Johnny, run; you're most up to him." But nobody said, "Go it, 
Tom," and somehow it got into my legs, and they wouldn't go;' and 
Tom, dropping to the ground in a heap, cried as though his heart 
would break." 

Sympathy a Balm for Old and Young. When Frances E. 
Willard lay dead in Chicago, among the flowers near her was a 
bunch of violets from a Washington newspaper woman. "I 
never saw Miss Willard but once," said the newspaper woman 
the day she sent the flowers. "It was in a western city. I 
was reporter on a local paper, discouraged, overworked, blue, home- 
sick and altogether miserable, for I was only — well, I wasn't out of 
my teens and I had been away from home only a few months. Miss 
Willard came to the city to organize a Woman's Christian Temper- 
ance Union chapter. I was sent to her hotel to ask her something 
impertinent. Miss Willard was ill, but sent word that I might come 
up. I found her sitting in an easy chair, very pale, but very sweet. 
I had only begun to tell my errand when she rose and came toward 
me. She put her hands on my shoulders. 'Why, dearie,' she said, 
'how tired you look 1 Take my chair, child.' And I — well, nobody 
had called me 'dearie' for so long, nobody had called me 'child,' that I 
— well, I put my head on Frances Willard's shoulder and cried it all out. 
I had never seen her before; I have never seen her since, but for the 
memory of those few kind words I say: God bless Frances Willard." 

Praise Wisely. "I have for some time been on the' lookout to dis- 
cover the secret of the continual happiness that seems to prevail 
among the children of one of my neighbors. They are the merriest, 
and at the same time the most obedient children I know. Their 



A PHASE OF PARENT STUDY. 239 

mother has but to express a wish to have anything done, and they do 
it promptly, even eagerly. And they do everything to the best of 
their ability. Nothing is shirked; nothing slighted. 

I discovered one day recently at least one reason for this delight- 
ful state of affairs in that home. It lies in the fact that the mother 
of these children is always praising them. She never descends to 
flattery, but of honest and deserved praise there is no stint. Every 
little service that they render her, everything that they do well, receives 
its full meed of praise. It is so easy to say, 'You did well, Johnny,' 
or 'That was done beautifully, Mary.' I have seen the result of this 
kindly and judicious praise, and it recalls the words of an old writer 
who said: 'Words of praise, indeed, are almost as necessary to warm 
a child into a genial life as acts of kindness and affection. Judicious 
praise is to children what the sun is to flowers.' " 

A Child's Confidence should never be abused. A promise given to 
a child should be as faithfully observed as that given to an older 
person. It is too often the case that children are kept from giving 
their confidence to parents because of their unfaithful trust. Note 
the sorrow and reproach of the little lover in this touching anecdote: 

"He was a shy little fellow, quite undemonstrative in his nature. 
But he had a secret in his little heart — a secret which he wished to 
share with the dearly loved mother. 

The mother was sitting by the window with her sewing basket at 
her side. She was darning a hole in the knee of the shy little fel- 
low's stocking. The boy edged up to his mother with an important 
look on his face, as if he were to divulge something of great impor- 
tance, as he whispered: 

'Mamma, I wish to tell you a great secret, but I wish you to 
promise never to tell it — not even to papa, or Leslie, or Kate, will 
you?' 

'Most certainly, my dear, I will promise never to tell my little 
boy's secret. What is it?' 

The boy bent down lower and whispered in his mother's ear: 

'Marjorie Greenough is my sweetheart. Now, don't you ever 
tell!' 

The boy's finger was held up as a sign of guarantee for his 
mother, and with his face covered with blushes that he had been so 



240 SOCIAL PURITY. 

communicative, he looked up into his mother's face. A smile was on 
it as she said: 'Marjorie is a sweet little girl.' 

The boy had confided to his mother what to him was a sacred 
secret; it was in her keeping. Mother liked Marjorie. With a happy 
heart he went off to his play. 

Two hours later he came back to his mother in tears, and in 
broken tones exclaimed: 

'You told, mamma, you told, and you promised you would not! 
Kate has told Leslie and the boys, and they have been laughing at 
me!' 

'Why, what do you mean, my child? I did not tell Kate a word. 
I promised I would not. ' 

'No, but you told Aunt Helen when she came to see you this 
afternoon, and Kate was in the hall and heard you, and she said you 
and Aunt Helen laughed. Oh, mamma, I did not think you would, 
after you promised! I will never tell you any of my secrets again!' 

What could that mother say? To her the little fellow's secret 
was a trivial affair — a cause for a smile and a little merriment with 
Aunt Helen — but nevertheless her promise was sacredly given to the 
child." 

In the words of another: "Does the teaching and training of chil- 
dren seem like small business? Is there any that demands higher 
powers or more earnest efforts? Any in which success will be more 
far-reaching and beneficial in its results?" If there is, I beg you to 
name it. 

The parent's influence on the child should be the connecting link 
between that child and his Creator. 

Robert G. Ingersoll said some good things. Among them this, in 
an address to the laboring men of Louisville, Kentucky: "When a 
man gets a wife and children and a home, he is in partnership with 
Almighty God." 



PART THREE 



The Growing Boy 

Secret Sin or Masturbation 

Life of Chastity — a Struggle 

Love — Courtship — Marriage 

What a Young Married Man Should Know 

Confidential Chat with Husband and Wife 



244 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE GROWING BOY. 

A growing boy just merging into manhood sometimes thinks that 
good manners and politeness of speech are marks of femininity, and 
seeks to rid himself of all such signs by affecting roughness and blunt- 
ness. He imagines this a sign of vigor and manliness, and that other 
young men will like him better for this supposed superiority. He has 
heard of some unscrupulous scoundrel who was courteous and well 
bred, and of some rough but manly characters; therefore, he argues 
that politeness and weakness or villainy go together, and that rough- 
ness and honesty pair. 

Mistaken again, young man! Because some polite men are dis- 
honest, and some honest men blunt, does not prove that good man- 
ners are to be avoided. It only shows that courteous behavior is 
so appreciated, so well liked, that it is, like good goods, often counter- 
feited. 

Respect for Age. There is a lack in these days of respectful 
speech to older people. The young man is apt to forget, if he ever 
knew, that age should be reverenced. 

It costs something now and then to be courteous. Yet a gentle- 
man will not hesitate to pay the price. Several years ago three young 
men, just graduated from college, went on a hunting tour through 
West Virginia, seeking sport and health. One day they stopped at a 
farmer's house to take dinner. They were cordially welcomed by the 
gOod man and his wife, whose table was bountifully spread. At the 
close of the meal a basket of apples and pears was placed on the table. 

"Mr. Ames, will you take apples or p'ars?" asked the farmer's 
wife, addressing one of the young men. 

The young man was perplexed. He wanted pears. "But," he 
said to himself, "if I say 'pears' I may mortify my hostess by seeming 
to correct her pronunciation. Should I say 'p'ars' the boys would 
laugh." "An apple, if you please," he answered, denying himself, 
that he might be courteous* 



THE GROWING BOY. 243 

A similar question was put to Mr. Childs, who also concluded to 
deny his appetite for the sake of courtesy, and take an apple. Mr. 
Smith, the third student, had made up his mind that he would take a 
pear. When the lady asked, "Mr. Smith, will you take apples or 
p'ars?" he answered, as courteously as if addressing a duchess: "Thank 
you, madam, I'll take p'ars." 

Two beautiful pears were passed to him, somewhat to the chagrin 
of his companions. As they were leaving the house the kind-hearted 
matron gave to Ames and Childs several apples, but to Smith three 
or four pears. 

"Boys," said Ames, "I wouldn't have mortified the old lady for a 
basketful of pears." 

"Nor would I have said 'pears,' " remarked Smith. "There's a 
time and place for everything, but the dinner-table is not the place to 
correct your hostess' pronunciation." 

Frederick Douglass, the colored orator, paid this just compliment 
to President Lincoln: "Mr. Lincoln is the only white man into whose 
presence I was ever ushered who did not make me feel that I was a 
negro. ' ' 

The Duke of Wellington, who had commanded great armies in 
Europe and had long been accustomed to be obeyed, did not despise 
the smaller courtesies of life. When about to die, his servant asked 
him if he would have a cup of tea. "Yes, if you please," he said. 
These were the great man's last words. 

Manners are the happy ways of saying and doing things. Dis- 
agreeable ways are to be avoided. A lady wishing to be kind to an 
acquaintance who was accustomed to take his meals in his own room 
or at cheap restaurants, invited him to her home to a family dinner 
which she had taken much pains to prepare. "But," she said, "I'll 
not invite him again." "Why," said her friend, "did he not enjoy 
it?" "Yes," said the lady, "but do you know, just as soon as he sat 
down to the table he wiped out his plate with his napkin, then wiped 
off his knife, forks and spoons, and then held his glass of water up to 
the light to see if there were any bugs in it." 

Many a young man has worried his mother to a sick-bed because 
of his untidy ways and discourteous manners. Young men of this 
sort will make a home very unpleasant, and its inmates will be con- 



244 SOCIAL PURITY. 

scious of a sense of comfort when they take their departure. Don't 
allow your loved ones to miss you in this way, my friend. 

Be Polite in the Home. Of all places in this great world, the 
young man should understand that home is the place where politeness 
should prevail and where he should speak his kindliest words. He 
should especially seek to honor in deed and word the parents whose 
name he bears and whose love he shares. 

Dwight L. Moody, the great evangelist, says: "In all my travels 
I have never seen a man succeed in life who treated his parents with 
contempt." 

A Gentleman. Every right-minded boy wants to be a gentleman 
when he is grown up, but his idea of a gentleman may likewise be a 
mistaken one, as was a certain student's. When the eminent scientist, 
Professor Huxley, asked him for a definition of a lobster, the student 
said: "A lobster is a red fish that moves backward." Professor Hux- 
ley remarked that the answer was very good, with three exceptions: 
"First, the lobster is not a fish; second, it is not red; and third, it 
does not move backward." Our young man sometimes defines a 
gentleman as a man who wears fine clothes, who uses smart language, 
who smokes a cigarette or cigar, who takes a glass of wine or beer 
occasionally, who is not obliged to labor with his hands, and who 
acts as if he were made of a little finer grade of clay than any one 
else. While it is true that some fine birds do wear fine feathers, it is 
not necessarily true that fine feathers make all birds fine, and as to 
the other attributes, they simply label the man as lacking just so much 
of being the perfect gentleman; in fact, a combination of these qual- 
ities would be like the student's lobster, none at all. 

To be a gentleman, a young man must be what the word implies 
—a gentle man, kind in word and thoughtful in deed. We can not 
think of his stooping to take any advantage of those weaker than 
himself, or of doing an unjust or an unfair thing. Habit can not 
enslave him. He is always on the right side of a moral question. 
He is everything that is noble, true and good. He is clean inside and 
out. 

Appearance and Cleanliness. Cleanliness is a mark of character. 
A man's appearance describes him better than a whole book of his 
qualities. Dirty linen, spotted clothing, black finger-nails and dusty 



THE GROWING BOY. 245 

shoes are no recommendation for a young man looking for employ- 
ment. The young man we would choose should be clean clear 
through to the skin; he should thoroughly cleanse that, and then go 
deeper. Don't be content to wash only "the outside of the cup and 
platter;" have clean thoughts and pure motives also. Let the lips 
and tongue be clean that no unclean utterance pass their door. No 
broadcloth can cover a foul man long; the stench will force its way 
through. A young man to be clean must control his thoughts, his 
desires, his passions, his habits. They must be made to bow to his 
will, and he must firmly say to them, "Stand there in thy place, / 
am master here." This, with a pure heart cleansed in the fountain 
opened for sin and unrighteousness, constitutes a clean man — a 
gentleman. 

Habits — Cigarettes. A young man to do his best "must lay aside 
every weight." One of these weights is the cigarette or cigar habit. 
As a boy he should never have taken it up, but if such has been his 
misfortune, let him lay it aside so positively that he never will touch 
it again. Every thoughtful and observant person has noticed the 
slouchy dress, the sleepy eyes, the lifeless complexion, the listless 
movements of the cigarette or the tobacco user among younger men. 
Their use not only affects the exterior appearance, but it extends also 
to the heart and brain. They can not be so clean, so clear, so alert and 
quick; they are just like the outside, dull and sluggish. If the habit 
is begun in boyhood and allowed to continue, the boy once bright in 
his studies, quick to see a point, and having a memory to retain it, 
becomes dull of comprehension and his memory fails him. He 
becomes unable to concentrate his thoughts, his nerves quiver with 
the slightest excitement, and he has no power to control them unless 
he seek the stimulant again. 

Business and educational men recognize this fact. Very few cig- 
arette and cigar smokers graduate from our colleges and higher 
schools of learning, and almost none come off with first honors. 
Business firms are coming to learn more and more that the cigarette 
users can not, or at least do not, perform their duties in as satisfac- 
tory a manner as those who do not use them. Railroads and other 
large corporations employ only men of clear brain and cool nerves for 
the heads of their departments. The superintendents of some systems 



246 SOCIAL PURITY. 

of railway service have reached for the scalps of the cigarette smoker, 
and the patronizing public feels safer. The young man would better 
quit before he begins. Energy and reliability are not attributes of 
the cigarette smoker. 

Young men who are clean, clear-headed and industrious are in 
demand, and the shrewd business man can scent them far off. Many 
business firms are to-day employing girls and women, rather than men 
and boys, in occupations not especially adapted to women, simply 
because women are more reliable. And why are they more reliable? 
Because they are not found evenings at the tobacconists' and in the 
saloons wasting their strength and energy. 

They are more clear-headed because they do not indulge in the use 
of narcotics and alcoholic beverages. They are more painstaking and 
conscientious because their will power and morals have not been 
weakened by the above-named habits. 

We have recently learned that, for the above reasons, a large hard- 
ware establishment in one of our large cities employs many women, 
leaving only the heavy work for men. This is an unpleasant com- 
mentary upon the laboring men, who complain that women are 
crowding them out of their legitimate pursuits. 

The Drink Habit. Another habit just as bad, but longer in its 
degrading effects, is the drink habit. No truer sayings in all the wis- 
dom of the ages than these: ''Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; 
and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. " "Look not thou 
upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, 
when it moveth itself aright. At last it biteth like a serpent, and 
stingeth like an adder." 

All that has been said of the cigarette may be said of this vile 
practice, and if possible should be emphasized more forcibly. You 
have only to look about on every hand to see the wrecked lives caused 
by this unholy, destructive habit. 

If we had it in our power to burn this one thought — to never touch 
the first glass — into the hearts of young men as with a red-hot iron, 
we would consider that the honor of the century. Of this one thing 
you may be sure, that he who never takes the first taste will never 
be a drunkard. If he does take that first sip, you are sure of 
nothing. 



THE GROWING BOY. 247 

Industry. The young man who avoids the habits just mentioned 
and who would succeed in the pursuits of life, must acquire habits of 
industry. He must be not only industrious, but must persevere in his 
industry upon one line, not in going from one line of work to another. 
One way of wasting time is in "dawdling," as Mrs. Wendell Phillips 
said to her husband. 

For example, a boy or young man starts out energetically at some 
special work, but he works a while at this, then leaves it to do some- 
thing else, when after a spasm of diligence, he drops that to take up 
some other pursuit which he fancies more to his liking. So he 
dawdles the days away, commencing a dozen different things, master- 
ing none and finishing none. He has been busy, to be sure, but his 
business amounts to very little to himself or anybody else. It would 
be much better were he to undertake but one thing and do that one 
thing with energy and precision, finishing it before leaving it, then 
taking the next thing and dealing with that in the same way. Work 
hurts no one. 

Work. When Theodore, now President, Roosevelt was asked this 
question, "If you could speak commandingly to the young men of 
our city, what would you say to them?" "I'd order them to work," 
he said. "I'd try to develop and work out an ideal of mine — the 
theory of the duty of the leisure class to the community. I have tried 
to do it by example, and it is what I have preached, first and foremost, 
to the American heart and soul, and to go in with any person, heed- 
less of anything but that person's qualifications. For myself, I'd 
work as quick beside Pat Dugan as with the last descendant of a 
patroon ; it literally makes no difference to me so long as the work is 
good and the man is thoroughly in earnest. One other thing I'd like 
to teach young men of wealth — that he who has not got wealth owes 
his first duty to his family, but he who has means owes his first duty 
to the state. It is ignoble to try to heap money on money. I would 
preach the doctrine of work to all, and to men of wealth the doctrine 
of unremunerative work." 

Drudgery. In all kinds of work, in all occupations, there is more 
or less drudgery. Every one who really accomplishes anything of 
worth must go through various forms of training which involve a large 
amount of routine work. An English bishop once said to a company 



248 SOCIAL PURITY. 

of students: "Of all work that produces results, nine-tenths must be 
drudgery." The president of one of our great universities said: 
"Eighty per cent, of my work is routine." Hamerton says: "The 
fine arts offer drudgery enough and disappointment enough to be a 
training both in patience and humility. ' ' The great masters in art 
spent much of their time in mixing their paints, preparing their own 
canvas, and even the walls which bear those wonderful frescoes which 
people cross the ocean to see. 

Michelangelo spent months in the quarries of Carrara getting out 
the marble from which he carved the beautiful creations of his fertile 
brain. 

Who can tell the number of solid years that Mendelssohn, 
Beethoven, Liszt and Wagner have put into finger practice? 

In preparing his work on Montcalm and Wolfe, the painstaking his- 
torian, Parkman, copied six thousand folio pages of manuscript from 
French and ten volumes from English libraries, and the notes and 
documents filled twenty-six volumes. 

"Petrarch is said to have made forty-four alterations in one verse. 

Buffon wrote his Epoques de la Nature eighteen times before he 
allowed them to appear in print. 

Macaulay stated in one of his essays that he had in his possession 
the variations in a very fine stanza of Ariosto, which the poet had 
altered a hundred times. 

Pietro Bembo, a noble Venetian, secretary to Leo X., was noted 
for the fastidious revisals he bestowed upon his compositions. He 
had forty portfolios, through which each sheet gradually found its 
way; but no remove was ever made until it had undergone a fresh 
perusal and further corrections. 

Gibbon wrote his memoir six times over, and, after all, has left it 
a fragment. In that work he has mentioned what a number of exper- 
iments he made in the composition of his great history before he could 
hit the middle tone between a dull chronicle and a rhetorical declama- 
tion. The first chapter was written and rewritten three times, and 
the second and third twice, before he was tolerably satisfied with their 
effects. 

Every line of Sismondi's Italian Republics was written three times, 
and so were almost the whole of his historical works. As he drew 



THE GROWING BOY. 249 

near the end of his life, composition was less laborious, and he con- 
tented himself with writing parts of the history of France twice over 
only. His revisal of what he had written was very careful; he cor- 
rected his proofs five or six times, and generally twice read aloud all 
that he penned." 

"Charles Dana Gibson, one of the few great American artists, tells 
this story about himself and his struggling days: 

He made a sketch and took it to an editor who accepted it and 
paid him four dollars for it. Mr. Gibson began to figure out that he 
could make five such sketches in a day and thus earn six thousand 
dollars per year. He hurried home and made five sketches and took 
them to the same editor who handed them all back, saying that more 
time and labor must be put into them. 

This lesson made a deep impression upon Mr. Gibson, who, to 
this day, is a most careful worker. A single wrong line causes him to 
tear up the paper and begin again. Friends may praise the work, but 
he will point out details which might be improved. The five-dollar 
picture receives as much of his painstaking attention as/the fifty-dollar 
one. He remembers the stage in his life when money was his first 
consideration; he has passed that; it is excellence that he aims at 
now. " — Selected. 

William Wordsworth's sister Dorothy says of him that he spent a 
whole day hunting for an adjective to describe the cuckoo. 

Franklin drudged about the dirty work of the printing-room long 
before he gave his famous sayings of "Poor Richard" to his admiring 
countrymen. He rewrote other men's literature to improve his own 
style, and practiced argument upon his friends before he became the 
famous statesman known on both sides of the Atlantic. His notoriety 
as a scientist was preceded by many careful experiments. 

Bryant drudged at the editorial desk when he might have sought 
converse with nature, which he so beautifully and truly pictured with 
a studious pen. 

Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes, all did the routine work of a teacher 
before the world acknowledged them as great poets. 

Gladstone and Spurgeon won success in their special lines by 
determined, patient effort. 

Moody began his evangelistic work on the smallest scale, always 



250 SOCIAL PURITY. 

doing with his might what his hand found to do. With but little 
education, he concentrated his thought on the practical teaching of 
the word of God, and on both continents his power is shown in the 
conversion of multitudes. 

Lincoln and Garfield, in deep poverty, did faithfully the most 
menial work that they might further their plans for an education. 

Thus we see that the young man who drudges has plenty of good 
company and need not be ashamed of the fraternal order to which he 
belongs. 

We do not advise useless work just for the name of being industri- 
ous, but we would not have the young man feel that because he must 
drudge, he therefore belongs to a low stratum of society. 

Menial Service the Test of True Worth. When a young man will 
do any kind of work, even though distasteful to him, rather than be 
idle, you may make up your mind that he possesses some quality worth 
having, and that in time he will amount to something. All honest 
labor is honorable. Some young men would rather go half-clad and 
half-fed than do manual labor. This is a false pride, made up of 
conceit and laziness, and you may also rest assured that such young men 
will not do much in any line of work. Phillips Brooks says: "It 
seems as if heroes had done almost all for the world that they can do; 
and not much more can come till common men awake and take their 
common tasks." 

There are many passable young men whom the world calls good, 
but we often wonder what they are good for. "They do not toil, 
they do not spin, yet Solomon in all his glory, was not arrayed like 
one of these." When you ask them for some simple service, they 
say, "Oh, 1 can't do that; ask some one else." They are always 
going to do some great thing, but somehow they never get started. 
Ruskin says: "It may be proved with much certainty that God 
intends no man to live in the world without working," but some young 
men seem to think that they are exceptions in the work of creation, 
and possibly they may be. 

Waste Energy. Most failures come from wasted energy. A young 
man may try to spread himself over too much ground. He should 
center his forces. A well-tilled garden pays better than a poorly- 
managed farm. Men prominent in the scientific and educational 




OUR DARLING BOY. 



THE GROWING BOY. 251 

world of to-day are specialists, taking the small plot and tilling it 
thoroughly. They have one definite aim, to gain which every facility 
is used. Each step they take is in the same direction, from which 
are no diverging paths. 

In the Spanish-American war it was the well-aimed firing of our 
American gunners that won the brilliant victories. No scattering 
shot. Every one had a purpose. Let our young man have a definite 
purpose; let him choose a good target, then practice shooting in that 
direction. It will take practice which may possibly amount to 
drudgery to become skilful in hitting the mark, but the point having 
been gained, the young man will not regret the earnest effort to 
acquire it. 

This will apply to any business or profession a young man may 
choose. He alone is worthy who stands faithfully to his chosen work. 
Sometimes, perhaps, he may think that he is on the wrong trail, but he 
goes on with just enough encouragement to keep him busy at it, when 
finally his long-worked-for goal looms up in the distance. 

Ruskin says: ''In order that people may be happy in their work, 
these three things are needed: they must be fit for it, they must not 
do too much of it, and they must have a sense of success in it — not a 
doubtful sense, such as needs some testimony of other people for its 
confirmation, but a sure sense, or, rather, knowledge, that so much 
work has been done well and fruitfully done, whatever the world may 
say or think about it. ' ' 

Economy. Most young men are slow to learn habits of economy. 
It is so much easier to spend a nickel than to plan to save it. Too 
many live up their income; then when they are thrown out of employ- 
ment and their wages have ceased, they must accept the help of 
others. Robert Louis Stevenson's advice is "to earn a little and 
spend less." No matter how much one earns, he ought to spend less 
than he earns. When the habir of saving is once begun, it comes 
easily. 

When Peter Cooper earned a dollar he lived on fifty cents of it. 
One need not necessarily be stingy or mean in order to be thrifty. 
The thing is to learn to avoid unnecessary waste by practicing small 
economies. The young man must learn to say, "I can not afford it," 
when tempted to extravagances, large or small. Among other young 

17 



252 SOCIAL f>URITY. 

people this takes courage. If one does not sacrifice his tastes and 
keep his expenditures down so that he can save something from his 
salary, he soon will be tempted to venture upon his future earnings, 
and then come a whole train of woes. The young man goes in debt, 
and debt is a weight upon any man's neck. It robs him of his inde- 
pendence, and finally of his self-respect. Independence and debt do 
not keep company long. 

' ' Once in England, ' ' says a writer in the Outlook, ' ' I was driving with 
an old farmer, and some of the men of the neighborhood came under 
criticism. Speaking of a prominent man in the village, I asked: 'He 
is a man of means?' 

'Well, sir,' the farmer replied, 'he ain't got much money, but 
he's mighty rich.' 

'He has a great deal of land, then?' I asked. 

'No, sir, he ain't got much land neither; but still he is mighty 
rich.' 

The old farmer, with a pleased smile, observed my puzzled look 
for a moment, and then explained: 

'You see, he ain't got much money and he ain't got much land, 
but still he is rich, because he never went to bed owing a man a cent 
in all his life. He lives as well as he wants to live and he pays as he 
goes; he doesn't owe anything and he ain't afraid of anybody; he tells 
every man the truth and does his duty by himself, his family and his 
neighbors; his word is as good as his bond, and every man, woman 
and child in the town looks up to him and respects him. No, sir, he 
ain't got much land; but still he is a mighty rich man, because he's 
got all he wants. ' ' ' 

Pay as You Go. John Randolph once declared: "I have found 
the philosopher's stone, and it is pay as you go." Some one else has 
said: "Who goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing. " The Bible says: 
"The borrower is servant of the lender." 

Young man, you need not be ashamed of poverty, and you need 
not parade it. Make the very best appearance you can and do it 
honestly. Do not expect to begin where your father left off in life. 
Begin at the beginning, pay as you go, and patiently and industriously 
wait for gains which shall warrant you in spending according to your 
tastes. 



THE GROWING BOY. 253 

There is no more pathetic scene than that related by Sir Walter 
Scott's biographer, who saw him dying of overwork through debt. 
One day when Lockhart wheeled him into his summer-house, the 
weary but brave old hero suddenly threw off his wraps and, moaning, 
said: "This will never do. I must get to my work." With tears 
running down his fine old face, he took up his pen, but could not hold 
it or dictate a word. 

Pitt, who managed the finances of the British realm at a salary of 
six thousand pounds a year, died so deeply in debt that an appropria- 
tion of forty thousand pounds was necessary to satisfy his creditors. 

Richard Sheridan, the brilliant Irish orator, became so dissipated 
and careless in money matters, that he was obliged to flee from place 
to place to escape those to whom he was indebted. 

The poet Cowper was so great a spendthrift that he managed to 
spend the income of a year in three months. 

Goldsmith scattered not only his own, but other people's money 
with a ready hand. At his death he owed two thousand pounds. A 
wit said at his funeral: "Was ever poet trusted so before?" 

When Mirabeau, the French revolutionist, died, it is said that his 
tailor stood at the door of his death-chamber with a bill for his wed- 
ding suit. 

Burns did not escape the annoyances of a debtor, though he wrote: 

"I've little to spend, and naething to lend, 
But never a shilling I awe, man," 

for his last poem was a love song written in part' payment of a loan. 
Debt Hath Slain Its Ten Thousands. Dr. Hillis says: "The sword 
and spear have slain their thousands, but debt hath slain its ten thou- 
sands. Poor, but desiring to be a patron of the fine arts; unable to 
deny his taste for rare books and paintings and beautiful drawings, 
the youth buys them upon time under the delusion that his treasures 
will be wings to lift him forward, not knowing that his debt will be a 
chain about his neck — a chain to which every month compound 
interest adds a new link. The peril of our age is extravagance. ' ' 
Half of our unhappiness comes not from poverty, though that is bad 
enough, but from debts, and in more than half the cases, debts that 
might have been avoided. Again we quote Dr. Hillis, who says: 
"Midway between poverty and riches is a genial clime, named coi}* 



254 SOCIAL PURITY. 

tentment with a little. Earth's famous sons, like Dante and Milton, 
have dwelt in this temperate clime. Carlyle, too, and Wordsworth 
and Emerson have 'earned a little and spent less.' The heroes and 
reformers also, in avoiding the arctic zone of poverty, have also 
avoided the tropic zone of riches." 

No young man should have a thought of marriage until he has 
learned to save. 

Success — Opportunity. In order to win success a young man 
should be ready to grasp opportunities as they pass. Baron Cuvier, 
the celebrated naturalist, when but eighteen years old was a tutor in 
a family who lived by the seaside. He often walked upon the beach, 
and one day found a cuttlefish. He took it home, dissected it and 
thus began the study of molluscae, in which he won a world-wide 
reputation. The ocean was the text-book from which he studied 
during his three-years' stay in this family. 

In the Christian Advocate of recent date, we find an anecdote 
showing the shrewdness of Gen. U. S. Grant, when a boy, in seizing 
the passing opportunity: 

"When General Grant was a boy his mother one morning found 
herself without butter for breakfast, and sent him to borrow some 
from a neighbor. Going, without knocking, into the house of a 
neighbor, whose son was then at West Point, young Grant overheard 
a letter read from the son stating that he had failed in examination, 
and was coming home. He got the butter, took it home and, with- 
out waiting for breakfast, ran down to the office of the congressman 
from that district. 

'Mr. Hamar,' he said, 'will you appoint me to West Point?' 

'No; So-and-So is there, and has three years to serve.' 

'But suppose he should fail, will you send me?' 

Mr. Hamar laughed. 'If he don't go through, no use for you to 
try.' 

'Promise you'll give me a chance, Mr. Hamar, anyhow.' 

Mr. Hamar promised. The next day the defeated lad came 
home, and the congressman laughed at Uly's sharpness and gave him 
the appointment. 

'Now,' said Grant, 'it was my mother's being out of butter that 
made me general and president. ' 



THE GROWING BOY. 255 

But it was his own shrewdness to see the chance, and promptness 
to seize it that urged him upwards." 

Sir Walter Besant was once asked: ''What do you consider the 
most important quality in a young man that goes to make success?" 
Sir Walter replied: "Industry, by all means. Cultivate the habit of 
industry and you possess the chief talisman of success. " He also 
calls attention to another element in character that is necessary to 
success — that is, self-control. 

What is meant by success? The term may have different mean- 
ings to different people. Usually the term is applied to prosperity 
in business, or distinction and fame in mental pursuits; it should also 
include the atttainment of a noble character. We are told that "A 
man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he 
possesseth." 

The Youth's Companion tells a little story showing the difference 
between success in life and the real good: 

' 'Yes, I suppose you may call Eben a successful man. He does a 
good business, but to my mind he isn't prosperous.' 

So said Mrs. Tracy to her sister, who had congratulated her on 
the purchase by her husband of a mill which he was thought to have 
bought at a bargain. 

'Well,' returned her sister, 'it seems to me everything he touches 
comes out just right. He's the busiest man in town.' 

'That's just it,' retorted Mrs. Tracy. 'He's busy, and he suc- 
ceeds in his doings, but that isn't progressing — not as I understand it. 
You see,' she continued, 'when we were first married, he leased the 
little wool-mill on the stream and got along first-rate. He wasn't 
over-busy, and we used to ride around together every afternoon and 
have lots of company and good times. 

'But he began to make money and buy more wool and more 
mills to take care of and more storehouses to put it in, until it takes 
about all his time to get from one mill to another. Sometimes I see 
him on a Sunday, but he is generally busy resting up to start again. 
He's about as much a slave as if he was chained in a galley.' 

'Yes, but he does make money,' said her sister. 

'Well, perhaps so, but it all goes to buy more wool. If anybody 
hankers for lots of wool in this world, that's one thing. Eben has 



256 SOCIAL PURITY. 

any amount of wool, but when it comes to getting the real solid good- 
ness out of life and enjoying it, he's forgotten how to do it. Really, 
as I look at it, Eben is the most unprosperous man in town.' " 

John Jacob Astor seems to have realized that there is a distinction 
between possessing wealth and being able to enjoy it. Once, when 
asked how much money he had, he said: "Just enough, sir, so I can 
eat one dinner a day!" 

Wealth does not always mean success. Brains and distinction are 
not synonymous with success, but they may be elements which aid to 
success. The greatest success lies in the building of character. 

The Rev. J. K. McClure said: "The best thing in this world is a 
good man; the greatest thing in this world is a great, good man; the 
most blessed thing in this world is a blessed, great, good man. ' ' 

A man's character is what distinguishes him from other men, not 
the amount of his brains alone, nor his bank account, nor his fine 
personal appearance, nor his winning speech, though these are all 
helps in the building of character. A man's real success is what he 
has made of himself — his real self. He is the concentration of good 
habits, moral principles, truth, brains, power, self-control. 

Famous Young Men. The great event in a young man's life is 
the moment he awakens to the thought that there is some special work 
for him to do, that he must make a choice of his life-work. If he 
has a deep, earnest purpose to do his best, to be at his best either in 
trade, business or profession, he will take high rank in his chosen 
work. But he must add to his native ability, energy, enthusiasm and 
devoted consecration. History points to many of our greatest think- 
ers and workers who did their best work in early life. 

Luther was only twenty-nine when he proclaimed his position and 
faith which led to the great reformation. 

Calvin was only twenty-seven when he published his Institutes 
that gave a new statement of doctrines and shaped religious thought 
for more than a century. 

Newton made his great discovery of the forces of gravity at twenty- 
five. 

Mozart, the great musician, was not thirty-seven when he died. 

Pitt was prime minister of Great Britain at twenty-five. 

Charlemagne was master of France and Germany at thirty. 



THE GROWING BOY. 257 

Napoleon was but twenty-seven when he showed superior military 
ability on the plains of Italy. 

Handel had produced an opera before he was fifteen. 

Claude Lorrain began landscape painting at twelve. 

Landseer began his study of dogs at six. 

Moliere finished one of his^best comedies at seventeen. 

Rembrandt finished a portrait before he was twelve. 

Shelley, the imaginative writer, died at thirty. 

Goethe had produced a number of poems and several dramas before 
he was twenty. 

Caesar was prominent in Roman affairs before he was thirty. 

Some of our own statesmen were but little older when advanced to 
important positions. 

Henry Clay was speaker of the House of Representatives at the 
age of thirty-four, and James G. Blaine at thirty-nine. Alexander 
Hamilton took charge of the treasury at thirty-two years of age. 
John C. Calhoun was vice-president in his forty-second year, while 
John C. Breckinridge was vice-president at thirty-two. General 
Fremont explored the Rocky Mountains before he was thirty years 
old, and ran for the presidency at forty-three. Theodore Roosevelt 
celebrated his forty-third birthday while occupant of the presidential 
chair. 

Thus we see that the enthusiasm and energy of young manhood 
may be the means of achieving success and eminence in early life. 
The demands upon young men of the present century are great. But 
many distinguished men have accumulated wealth and wisdom slowly. 
Fame has come only after long and persistent search in certain lines 
of knowledge. 



CHAPTER XII. 

SECRET SIN, OR MASTURBATION. 

We come now to an extremely distasteful subject for discussion; 
but duty calls, and we must proceed to obey. 

Intelligence the Only Safety. Prudery says: Keep still; do not 
talk about our sexual natures. Duty says: Cry aloud; let the truth be 
known; publish it to the world; save the people from pollution and 
destruction; from death. God says: "My people are destroyed for 
lack of knowledge." — Hosea iv. 6. Duty and the Divine voice must 
be heeded. Multitudes might have been saved in the past had but a 
warning voice been heard. Multitudes may yet be saved to the future 
by a proper understanding of the duties and dangers of life. Keep 
still, and die; cry aloud, and live. Pollution, disease, idiocy, death 
lie on this side; purity, health, manly vigor, life, on the other. 
Which shall it be? 

The tempter comes to the young in a hundred ways; we can not 
guard all these avenues of danger. The youth of both sexes should 
be taught to be their own guard. This can only be done by intelligent 
instruction from those whose duty it is to give it. Information, often 
from the most vicious sources, will ultimately reach the child, though 
his parents may believe that he is secure from danger. Intelligence 
and moral training are the only safeguards. If they fail, as they do 
in many cases, there is little hope elsewhere; surely ignorance can not 
save, if training and intelligence fail. 

Great care should be taken to warn the young of danger. But 
that is not all. Parents and teachers should note with keen percep- 
tions all the movements and symptoms of those under their care. 
Superintendents and teachers so flabby in their mental and moral 
fiber as to permit the school premises to become an offense to eye, 
ear and good morals, should be made to give place to better men and 
women. Parents should watch carefully those who have charge of 
their children in all schools, of every grade and character. Some 
teachers are extremely careless or indifferent; others are too immature 

258 



SECRET SIN, OR MASTURBATION. 259 

or wanting in knowledge and experience to know their responsibilities 
or duties. One vicious boy or girl may contaminate a whole school. 
Boarding-schools are especially dangerous in the matter of masturba- 
tion. Servants having charge of children should be cautioned and 
watched. 

But mere strictness on the part of teacher and parent will not do; 
young people need information; they should know about those things 
that may sap the very foundation of their existence. A father will 
not hesitate to warn his son against a thief; why should he not be as 
ready to warn him against violations of his sexual nature? 

Self-abuse is the first great danger to the youth of both sexes. 
This practice is also known as masturbation, secret vice, self-pollution. 
This is one of the avoided subjects because it is one of the unpleasant 
themes to discuss. It is one of the evil practices of the race. It has 
been known, discussed and condemned by writers in all ages. Whether 
the conditions are any better or worse than in the past, we do not 
know. The havoc this evil practice causes the mind and body is well 
known to all physicians. One reason why the vice is so destructive 
is in the fact that it is continued in secret through days, weeks, 
months, years without its victim knowing its evil effects. No warn- 
ing from without, and a constant prompting from within, lead on to 
destruction. Very few parents ever warn their children against this 
vice. In fact, some do all they can to keep a knowledge of these 
things from them, believing the know-nothing plan is a shield from 
danger. But this plan fails. Nature within and the tempter without 
will do what the parent should have done in a much better way. 

Dr. Chas. A. Hoff says: "That masturbation is revolting and dis- 
gusting, every parent and every one else realizes; and for this reason 
there is a natural delicacy in speaking on the subject to young people. 
Yet, when it is remembered that so many miseries arise from it, that 
it is so prevalent among youth, no parent should allow feelings of 
absurd delicacy to endanger the health, and even the life, of son or 
daughter." 

Influences of Imagination. "The imagination alone," says Dr. 
Sperry, "is able to produce and to maintain for a long time, a high 
degree of sexual excitement. This excitement is accompanied by a 
severe and exhausting tension of the nervous system. The spinal cord 



260 . SOCIAL PURITY. 

and the brain become irritated under the tension, and the special 
senses are often seriously injured by it. After a while the back, the 
head, the eyes and the ears of the abuser-of-self suffer serious discom- 
fort, and in various ways are made to behave badly. . . . The imag- 
ination is allowed to work as much havoc in and through the repro- 
ductive sphere as is brought about by mechanical means." 

In regard to a polluted imagination, ^Rev. John Todd says: "In 
this life a heavier curse can hardly hang upon a young man than that 
of possessing a polluted imagination. The leprosy fills the whole 
soul. Time only increases it, and even the power of the gospel can 
seldom do more than restrain without subduing it." 

Leads to Insanity. Speaking of the nature of the insanity result- 
ing from masturbation, Dr. Henry Maudsley, one of England's 
greatest authorities on mental diseases, says: "The habit of self-abuse 
notably gives rise to a particular and disagreeable form of insanity, 
characterized by intense, self-feeling and conceit, extreme perversion 
of feeling and corresponding derangement of thought, in the earlier 
stages; and later by failure of intelligence, nocturnal hallucinations, 
and suicidal and homocidal propensities. ' ' In another place the same 
author says: "Once the habit [masturbation] is formed and the mind 
has positively suffered from it, there would be almost as much hope 
of the Ethiopian changing his skin or the leopard his spots as of the 
victim abandoning the vice. The sooner he sinks to his degraded 
rest the better for himself and the better for the world." 

Another excellent English authority, Dr. Acton, says: "I could 
speak of the many wrecks of high intellectual attainments, and of the 
foul blot which has been made on the virgin page of youth, of shocks 
from which the youth's system will never, in my opinion, be able to 
rally, of maladies engendered which no after-course of treatment can 
altogether cure, as the consequence of this habit." 

"I myself," says the Rev. John Todd, in his Students' 1 Manual, 
"have seen many young men drop into premature graves from this 
cause alone." 

Symptoms. Here are some of the symptoms following this 
destructive habit. Of course, not all these symptoms are found in 
any one case, neither does any one symptom, nor perhaps several of 



SECRET SIN, OR MASTURBATION. 261 

them, prove that the cause is masturbation. But, as in law, we must 
take the ''weight of evidence. ' ' Consumption is, many times, induced 
by this habit through its weakening effects on the system. Loss of 
memory is among the most common effects resulting from this secret 
practice. We have already referred to insanity produced by this vice. 
Pain, heaviness and weakness across the back and loins, palpitation 
of the heart, shortness of breath, nervousness, are all symptoms. A 
nervous, aching pain in the head, pains in bones and muscles of 
rheumatic nature, are some of the signs that should give us warning. 
The general system is so weakened and debilitated that any disease 
may be difficult to resist, and may result fatally. Languor, disinclin- 
ation to physical and mental labor, physical debility, united with 
mental weakness, all warn us of danger, and may have their cause in 
masturbation. Of the effects on the mind and imagination, we may 
truthfully say are the following: selfishness; the imagination runs 
riot in images of debauchery; conversation and reading by choice are 
ignoble and vulgar; the whole moral nature is debased. Woman has 
no real charms for the masturbator who no longer controls his 
passions. 

In his Confidential Talks with You?tg Men, Dr. L. B. Sperry says: 
"Much of the eye-strain and other difficulties of vision of which so 
much is heard of late, is due to some form of unnatural or excessive 
sexual excitement. It is quite likely that the reproductive system, 
and through it, all of the bodily organs and functions, suffer as much 
on account of mental abuse as through the abuse of the hand. 

The habitual masturbator sows seeds that must eventually ripen 
into a harvest of horrible conditions. But the pure in heart and the 
upright in conduct sow seeds whose fruitage is long life, sound health 
and genuine, lasting happiness, not only for himself, but for his 
offspring; and his associates also receive a beneficent influence from 
his contagious purity." 

The evils of masturbation may be overdrawn when applied to cases 
not extreme in practice or in physical results. We wish to throw out 
a word of warning, and to instruct; not to so overdraw the matter 
and thus cause undue fear for past offenses. We are striving for 
future results. Let us sing with Holmes: 



262 SOCIAL PURITY. 

"Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 

As the swift seasons roll! 

Leave thy low-vaulted past! 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 

Till thou at length art free, 
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!" 

"There is hardly any part of our subject which is more difficult to 
treat than this, and yet there is none which demands more urgently 
plain speaking and emphatic language. There have been, unfortu- 
nately, many wretched books put forth upon this topic, filled with 
overdrawn pictures of its results, and written merely for the purpose 
of drawing the unwary into the nets of unscrupulous charlatans." 

Facts by Dr. Napheys. These are the words of Dr. Napheys: 

"While we do not wish to overdraw the evils of self-abuse, we do 
not wish to pass it by so lightly that a deep and lasting impression 
will not be left on the mind of the reader. We also wish to give 
sufficient evidence, drawn from the highest and most trustworthy 
sources, to convince the most skeptical, to persuade the most indiffer- 
ent and to startle the most careless. Here are some trustworthy 
witnesses. The following- is in substance the testimony of a noted 
English physician, Dr. D. C. Black: The excess of self-pollution 
debilitates both the physical and mental faculties. To deny it is to 
deny a self-evident fact. It is apparent to every inquirer, both from 
the confessions of those who have from want of resolution yielded to 
this selfish gratification, as well from the change that is observed in 
the condition of their health. There was never an author who ever 
dwelt upon this subject but held out the strongest warnings against 
the habit of it, and pointed out the evil tendency of it as pro- 
ductive of the most ruinous consequences to the constitution in 
general, to the venereal powers in particular and to the mental 
endowments." 

Testimony of Teachers. It is the testimony of teachers in India 
that the Hindoo boys, up to about the age of seventeen years, are, as 
a rule, bright, quick to learn, with clear perceptions; but after that 
age there is a great falling off, so much so that the change is striking. 
This phenomenon is accounted for in the Hindoo custom of child- 
marriages. The boys become husbands sometimes before they reach 



SECRET SIN, OR MASTURBATION. 263 

their teens. In their immature manhood and want of judgment and 
proper control, they are led into over-sexual indulgence. 

Dr. Dio Lewis, in his Chastity, relates several sad cases of mas- 
turbation that came under his own observation. It would occupy too 
much space to quote fully, so we merely repeat his advice given to 
one of his patients: ''I assured him that there was but one method of 
cure — that all specific medicines, patent rings, cauterizations, etc., 
were each and all a deception and a snare. He must go on with his 
clean thinking, clean skin, much sleep, much exercise outdoors, much 
laughing, and that the local cleanliness must be made perfect. Then 
he must not forget the vital importance of light and air. I explained to 
him that a well man might venture upon many violations of law, but 
that, when the scales are evenly balanced between health and disease, 
in order to secure a preponderance of health, everything must be 
right." The italics are Dr. Lewis'. 

Ludwig, in describing this ill, says: "Young people of both sexes 
who devote themselves to this lascivious practice, destroy their health 
and dissipate these powers which were designed to bring their bodies 
to the greatest degree of vigor, and they at length fall into consump- 
tion." 

Van Swieten, whose fame was world wide, says: "I have seen all 
these accidents, and several others, befall those persons who had aban- 
doned themselves to these shameful pollutions. For three years I 
have used all the aid that medicine could afford, without success, for 
a young man who had drawn upon himself by this practice various 
pains, extraordinary as they were general, with alternate successions 
of heat and cold, particularly in the loins." 

Report on Subject of Idiocy. The following is an extract from a 
Report on the Subject of Idiocy, presented to the Massachusetts 
Senate by Dr. S. G. Howe: "There is another vice, a monster so 
hideous in mien, so disgusting in feature, altogether so beastly and 
loathsome, that, in very shame and cowardice, it hides its head by 
day, and vampire-like, sucks the very life-blood from its victims by 
night; and the name of this monster is self-abuse. It can not be that 
such wrecks of humanity as men and women reduced to driveling 
idiocy by this cause, should be permitted to float upon the tide of life 
without some useful purpose; and the only one we can conceive is 



264 SOCIAL PURITY. 

that 01 awful beacons to make others avoid— as they would eschew 
moral pollution and death — the curse which leads to such ruin. A 
knowledge of the extent to which this vice prevails would astonish 
and shock many. It is, indeed, a pestilence which walketh in dark- 
ness, because, while it saps and weakens all the higher qualities of 
the mind, it so strengthens low cunning and deceit that the victim 
goes on in his habit unsuspected, until he is arrested by some one 
whose practiced eye reads his sin in the very means he takes to con- 
ceal it, or until all sense of shame is forever lost in the night of idiocy, 
in which his day so early closes. Many a child, who confides every- 
thing else to a loving parent, conceals this practice in his innermost 
heart. The sons and daughters who dutifully, conscientiously and 
religiously confess themselves to father and mother or priest on every 
other subject, never allude to this. Nay, they strive to cheat and 
deceive by false appearances; for — as against this darling sin — duty, 
conscience and religion are all nothing. Many a fond parent looks 
with wondering anxiety upon the puny frame, the feeble purpose, the 
fitful humors of a dear child, and, after trying all other remedies to 
restore him to vigor of body and vigor of mind, goes journeying about 
from place to place, hoping to leave the offending cause behind, while 
the victim hugs the disgusting serpent closely to his bosom and con- 
ceals it carefully in his vestments. 

Vigilance of Parents Necessary. "It behooves every parent, espe- 
cially those whose children (of either sex) are obliged to board and 
sleep with other children, whether in boarding-schools, boarding-houses 
or elsewhere, to have a constant and watchful eye over them, with a 
view to this insidious and pernicious habit. Nothing is more false 
than the common doctrine of delicacy and reserve in the treatment of 
it. The right way is to throw aside all reserve; to charge the offense 
directly home; to show up its disgusting nature and hideous conse- 
quences in glowing colors; to apply the cautery seething hot, and 
press it into the very quick, unsparingly and unceasingly. ' ' 

It appears that Dr. Howe, as stated in this report, believes with 
Isaiah, that persistence is necessary. "Precept upon precept; line 
upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little." — Is. xxxiii, 
10. 

Perhaps the parent may make a mistake in assuming that a word 



SECRET SIN, OR MASTURBATION. 265 

of warning is sufficient. In some cases a word of warning is sufficient ; 
but in all cases it is well to watch carefully, and to let the child know 
that he can not hide his evil practices from the anxious eye of the 
parent. It is quite generally known among young people that the 
practice of self-abuse can be detected by a careful observer. They 
also know some of the evils, though they may never have read in 
books about it. Such information, good and bad, is in some way 
diffused among young people. A knowledge that these evil practices 
can be read by the public at large has had, and will have, a restraining 
influence on their acts. Many evil-doers repent only after they have 
been detected; others would do evil, but refrain because they fear 
detection. Virtue based on fear is not very exalted, but it is better 
than no virtue. So we say, let no masturbator rest in peace. 

The distinguished Dr. Hoffman, among other cases, gives the fol- 
lowing: "A young man who had begun the vice at fifteen and con- 
tinued it until he was three-and-twenty, became affected at length 
with a great weakness of sight. At twenty-three he had such a weak- 
ness in his head and eyes that he frequently suffered spasms of the 
eyes with his seminal emissions. The eyelids were heavy, and at 
night were glued together with a foul, whitish matter. He was 
reduced to a skeleton." By proper treatment the young man was 
restored to health. 

Causes Leading to Self-abuse. Among the causes which lead to 
sexual indulgence, we may mention, improper habits of diet, such as 
highly seasoned food, eating too much meat, hearty meals at night, 
rich pastry, with stimulating drinks, as coffee, tea, beer, wine and the 
like. 

Professor Fowler says: ;< I believe it would be difficult to find a 
boy that used tobacco who does not masturbate, especially if the habit 
of using tobacco has been acquired before sixteen years of age. ' ' 

One of the best aids to a boy just emerging into manhood is to live 
in a home with sisters. Boys reared in homes where they have sisters 
are, as a rule, more refined, pure, gentle, thoughtful, than those who 
live in homes where there are no girls. Boys, and we might add men 
also, when deprived of woman's influence, become coarse and rough 
in manner and speech and, perhaps, thought. On the other hand, 
women deprived of the influence of the opposite sex lose some of that 



266 SOCIAL PURITY. 

grace and thoughtful interest in others which render womanhood in 
its highest form so loving and lovable. 

With all the imperfections of our public schools, the fact that boys 
and- girls are educated together there, that they sit in the same room, 
recite in the same classes, redeems these schools from serious criticism. 
A proper development of the sexual relations that lead to a higher, 
nobler, purer manhood and womanhood can only be attained by bring- 
ing the two sexes together during the critical period of adolescence. 

False Reasoning of Boys. Most boys, long before the close of the 
period of adolescence, learn about self-abuse, though they may not 
practice it; they also know something of its evil effects. But, as a 
rule, their knowledge of its evil effects is defective; it is of the half- 
truth nature. They realize that it is a drain on their system, but 
their mistake in reasoning is based on the idea of draining. A pail 
may leak, but by keeping it well supplied with water it never goes 
dry. They have been told that the loss of semen is equivalent to the 
loss of a certain amount of blood. To supply this loss they reason 
that they should eat the foods that will make good the drain. They 
fail to see that the proper way is to stop the leakage. Those who 
have read carefully the preceding pages on self-pollution will readily 
see that there are several fatal errors in this line of reasoning. First, 
the fires of passion are continually supplied with fuel. Second, the 
semen performs an important part in the economy of man's devel- 
opment; a part that food can not perform until it has passed into the 
form of semen. If the semen be drained from the system, of course 
it must fail to perform one of its most important functions. Third, 
it is not only a drain upon the physical body, but is a great strain 
upon the whole nervous system. Fourth, it is degrading to the intel- 
lectual and moral nature. 

The habit of masturbation has its inception in the mind, and in 
that part of the brain known as the cerebellum. When first practiced 
it is a voluntary act. All over-sexual indulgences, and especially the 
practice of masturbation, produce broken constitutions, nervous 
weakness and a multitude of ills, the sufferers of which have no idea 
of the source. 

One authority says: "The semen goes [when retained in the sys- 
tem] to strengthen the whole organism, bones, muscles, ligaments, 



VNOP Ar . 




AT 15 

CIGARETTES —SELF-ABUSE 




AT 25 

IMPURITY— DISSIPATION 




VICE—DEGENERACY 




AT 46 

MORAL*- PHYSICAL WRECK 
Copyright, 1903, by J. A. HerteL 




*'4 THE BOY && 



THE above cut represents a 
bright, manly little boy of 
seven — he comes from a good 
Christian home. Going to the 
left, at thirteen he takes to 
cigarettes, etc. At twenty-five 
we find him in the beer saloon 
— Impurity and Dissipation. 
Down lower he goes at break- 
neck speed — ■ next a tramp — 
Vice and Degeneracy — a n d fi n al ly 
at the early age of forty-eight 
— Moral and Physical Wreck. 
How sad yet how true to life. 
The bright side. To the 
right — at thirteen Study and 
Cleanliness ; at twenty- five a 
thrifty young business man — 
Purity and Economy ; at thirty- 
sixtraveling — off on his summer 
vacation enjoying, with h i s 
family, a well needed rest. At 
sixty, Venerable Old Age, 



- m 

m 



AT 15 

STUDY—CLEANLINESS 




AT 25 

PURITY— ECONOMY 




AT 36 

HONORABLE SUCCESS 




AT60 

VENERABLE OLD AGE 




HEALTH, PURITY AND INNOCENCE. 



SECRET SIN, OR MASTURBATION. 267 

brain and nerves — in short, every fiber of his being. This is necessary 
to the full development of his manhood. Now, suppose this boy 
meets with some base wretch, or some other boy who has learned the 
art of self-abuse, and acquires the knowledge, and with it, the habit of 
masturbation? This process of development is at once arrested. The 
vital fluid perverted from the work of development of manly qualities 
and powers now goes to the testes to supply the materials for the 
manufacture of semen — which is wasted — and thus every organ of the 
body, in fact, every fiber of his organism, robbed of its proper nutri- 
ment, becomes weak and inefficient." 

It Saps the Life-Blood. The death-rate during the period of 
adolescence (fourteen to twenty-one) is higher than during the age 
immediately succeeding it. Unquestionably the cause of this increased 
death-rate is due to the fact that the vital powers are being drained by 
waste through masturbation. Of course there are masturbators among 
men of full age, but most men of mature age, if not married, have 
had sufficient warning to startle them, and have sufficient self-control 
to keep within bounds that saves them from the more fatal effects. 

But here are some of the moral effects upon masturbators of all 
ages: He is not prompt, or bold, or resolute, or forceful; but timid, 
afraid of his own shadow, uncertain, waiting to see what is going to 
turn up; always in a hurry, yet hardly knowing what he is doing or 
what to do. He does not walk erect, with dignified mien, as if con- 
scious of his manhood; neither is he lofty in his aspirations, and will 
move with a cringing, self-debased manner, as if depreciated and 
degraded in his own eyes. The above description is from the pen of 
another. We suspect that any degrading practice will ultimately 
show itself in the general appearance of the one practicing it. 

Remedies Against Masturbation. But what are the remedies for 
self-abuse? 

First. Never begin the practice; prevent the formation of the 
habit; destroy the egg. As suggested in another place, the parent 
and teacher have much to do in this first step. 

Second. Use the will-power. Many victims of this vice will be 
discouraged at the tremendous contest ahead, especially when they 
learn, as they will, that the remedy lies primarily within their own 
being, the use of the will-power. 

18 



268 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Third. Purity of mind is fundamental ; it is the great bulwark 
against temptation. Without it success is impossible. In order to 
keep the mind pure, all lascivious views must be banished from eye 
and imagination; all impure, exciting literature must be thrown aside 
as a viper ready to give the death-sting; impure conversation must 
not befoul the mouth or shock the ear. 

Fourth. Switch the mind on other subjects when tempted. Make 
an effort to occupy the mind with some subject foreign to any sexuality. 

Fifth. Plain food and physical exercise. 

Sixth. Cleanliness of body. Bathe the parts in cold water. 

Seventh. "Surgical operation which renders the action physically 
impossible." 

If it be found impossible to conquer by will, by self-denial, plain 
food, cold bath, "switching off" the mind, do not hesitate to consult 
a well-trained, conscientious, intelligent, upright physician. Of 
course it is exceedingly difficult for one to overcome his reluctance in 
confessing his weakness even to his medical adviser. But let nothing 
persuade a young man to consult the charlatans who advertise so 
extensively. It is for their interest to play upon the fears of young 
men and women. 

Circumcision— Its History. Circumcision is the act of cutting off 
the loose, projecting foreskin, or prepuce, of the penis of the male 
child. We first learn of circumcision in connection with Abraham, 
the father of the faithful. From the time of Abraham to the present 
age, this custom has been practiced by the Jewish race. In Genesis 
xvii, 9-13, we read: "And God said unto Abraham, As for thee, thou 
shalt keep my covenant; thou and thy seed after thee throughout 
their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, 
between me and you and thy seed after thee; every male among you 
shall be circumcised. And ye shall be circumcised in the flesh of 
your foreskin; and it shall be a token of a covenant betwixt me and 
you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, 
every male throughout your generations, he that is in the house, or 
bought with money of any stranger who is not of thy seed." Abra- 
ham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised; and all 
faithful Jews still keep this covenant instituted so long ago, though 
they have been ridiculed, persecuted and driven from land to land. 



SECRET SIN, OR MASTURBATION. 269 

Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar, was circumcised when a 
lad twelve years old. For that reason the Arabs, who are his descend- 
ants, circumcise their male children at about the same age. 

Though Mohammed did not institute this rite, all his followers, 
though not Arabs, circumcise their boys. Mohammed himself was 
circumcised when a boy, and, of course, before there was such a 
religion known as Moslemism. 

The Abyssinian Christians also practiced circumcision. 

We are somewhat surprised to learn that this rite was practiced 
among some of the native tribes of Africa, and also among the Indians 
of America, especially the Peruvians of South America. Both history 
and the monuments teach us that circumcision was performed among 
the ancient Egyptians and Phoenicians. It is not known how this rite 
originated among other peoples so widely distributed over the world. 
We might assume and theorize, but it would be without profit to any 
one. We only know that God instituted the rite as a covenant with 
Abraham and his seed after him. It would perhaps be presumption in 
us to attempt to give all the reasons why this was commanded to be 
done. But among other reasons, there was doubtless a hygienic basis 
for its requirement. We have learned that the Mosaic laws regarding 
ceremonial cleansing had a very practical bearing upon the propaga- 
tion of children and of sexual purity. There are good reasons for 
believing that this also had its practical side, which was best enforced 
as a religious ceremony. The Jewish people as a race are very tena- 
cious toward anything related to their religious faith. 

Dr. P 4 C. Remondino, in his treatise on Circumcision, gives many 
statistics to show that the Jews have a greater power of resisting dis- 
eases of different kinds than have other races among which they live. 
It will be generally conceded, we think, that he is correct in his gen- 
eral conclusions on this subject. 

We ought, logically, to bring evidence to substantiate the state- 
ment that the Jewish people to-day have a better chance for life, 
counting the whole time from birth to death, than do Christian peo- 
ple among whom they live. As we have not space to do so, we refer 
the reader to the work of Dr. Remondino mentioned above, and to 
other statistics that may be accessible. But it will not do to give 
credit to circumcision for all these favorable indications. The 



270 SOCIAL PURITY. 

hygienic rules laid down in the Mosaic law must also be taken into 
account. And yet, after making due allowance for all other influ- 
ences, there is reason to believe that circumcision has had a favorable 
hygienic restraint upon the Jewish race. 

It is well known that the prepuce in childhood is unnecessarily 
long, but during adult life it acts as a protection to the male gland. 
Some physicians claim that because of its beneficial use in adult life, 
it should never be removed. On the other hand, it is claimed that it 
may be injurious even in adult life, as it renders man more susceptible 
to venereal diseases. 

But unquestionably the prepuce is a nuisance in childhood, and 
from this annoyance the boy may be protected if the parents so 
desire. Secretions gather in the prepuce which cause irritation. The 
boy is thus led to pay too much attention to his secret organs, his 
mind may become perverted, and his habits be detrimental to health. 

Sexual precocity may be the result. That it may lead to early 
masturbation is a most serious matter, and one which every right- 
minded parent should take measures to prevent. Cleanliness of these 
organs is one of the best safeguards against sexual irritation. Will 
circumcision lead to greater cleanliness and less irritation, hence less 
temptation? If so, it is decidedly a hygienic measure as well as a 
moral defense. 

The subject is certainly worthy the careful attention of every con- 
scientious father of boys. Our object is accomplished if we have 
arrested the attention of thoughtful parents whose study and ambi- 
tion is to make the most of their boys, and through them to make the 
lot of womankind healthier and more blessed. 



GHAPTSB XIII. 

A LIFE OF CHASTITY IS A LIFE OF STRUGGLE. 

The first thought a young man should firmly fix in mind is that a 
life of chastity is a life struggle. It is very easy to follow where pas- 
sion leads. 

A Warning. We are apt to reason wrongly when passion is the 
father to the thought. Again, results of violated law are so far away 
that our strong desires shut out the more distant view, and we see 
only present gratification. If all could only see the misery, pain, 
torture, anguish that is liable to overtake all violators of physical 
laws, the world would be freed from much of its misery. Nature 
says: Take what you want, and pay for it. We accept that invitation 
and proceed, many times, to pay a tremendous price for what we get. 
We think we may cheat nature and get much present gratification, 
and defer payment indefinitely. But in due time payment is 
demanded with interest, and though we cry out, like Esau, we 
must abide by our own choice, though we may have sold our birth- 
right — health and purity — for a mess of pottage — present gratification. 
If all could see with convincing, convicting clearness all the poverty, 
crime, misery, pain and torture resulting from the violation of sexual 
laws, and heed the warning, much of this world's misery would vanish 
like the miasmic mist before the morning sun. 

These nerves of ours are a glorious heritage, given us for the most 
exalted purposes and pleasures, but when poisoned, perverted, dis- 
eased by alcohol and other narcotics; when they are permitted to set 
our passions on fire, and lead us into captivity of sin, disease, death, 
then they become the executioners of nature for her violated laws. 
Oh, but those nerves can torture poor humanity! Let us beware that 
nature never be permitted to turn us over to their avenging mission. 
This we can do by shunning all violation of her laws, especially her 
laws of chastity. 

The Battle for Purity. The struggle for sexual purity is a battle 
royal, extending over a period of from thirty-five to forty-five years. 

271 ' . 



272 SOCIAL PURITY. 

The fierceness of the fight depends principally upon two things, viz. : 
(i) the strength of the sexual nature of the individual, and (2) the 
number of victories won or lost in the early years of the struggle. If 
often defeated at the beginning, the struggle will be the longer con- 
tinued, and the victory longer delayed. But the effort for sexual 
purity will be royally repaid with health and vigor of manhood. 

Spies and traitors must be kept out of camp if we are to fight a 
successful battle. These may appear in the form of false teachings 
or erroneous ideas concerning sexual laws. We may be led to violate 
law, when at the same time we think we are in strict harmony with the 
requirements of our physical being. Nature makes no allowance for 
ignorance or false ideas. A burn is just as painful, though we did 
not know that the iron was hot when we picked it up. 

Some False Teachings. The idea is quite general among men 
that the loss of some seminal fluid is essential to health. Most men 
of any breadth of information know that excessive loss is injurious. 
A moderate loss in a proper way is according to nature's laws, and 
may be beneficial. But there are some physicians who teach that 
some loss of the male element is essential to good health. This idea 
in the mind of a young or old man is an open door for the tempter to 
enter. If there must be loss, it must come to the unmarried man 
either through involuntary emissions, masturbation, fornication or 
harlotry— not a very bright prospect for an unmarried man who 
wants to be pure-minded. But let it be clearly understood by every 
man that the loss of the male element is not necessary to vigorous 
health; but, on the contrary, to retain it in the system is of the high- 
est value, both physically and intellectually. This idea will be made 
clear to the reader as we progress in the discussions of sexual hygiene. 

Seminal Loss Not Necessary to Health. Those who claim that 
seminal loss is essential to health base it on the general physical law 
that activity is necessary to growth and health. The mechanic's arm 
is strong because of its vigorous use. An organ of the body not in 
use dies or becomes diseased. The Mammoth Cave fishes are blind 
because they have no use for eyes. Thus runs their line of argument, 
and at a glance it seems to be logical and sound. 

But let us look into it a little deeper. Organs that are made to be 
constantly active or, at least, with but short periods of rest, must 



A LIFE OF CHASTITY IS A LIFE OF STRUGGLE. 273 

follow the law as stated above — the law of activity. But there are 
some organs of the body whose activities are not constant. They 
are to be used only as occasion requires. Among these are all the 
organs of generation. We know that the sexual life of most of our 
domestic animals lies dormant the larger part of the year without 
injury. We also know that the mammary glands of all mammals, 
which, of course, include women, may be dormant for many years at 
a time, but at the birth of a new being, these glands at once begin to 
perform their natural function of preparing milk for the little stranger. 

Fact Better than Logic. But this is not all. Fact is better than 
logic, especially if the logic be defective or one-sided. Men, many 
of them, have lived for years without the loss of a drop of the vital 
fluid, and yet have had the most vigorous health. On his death-bed. 
Sir Isaac Newton, one of the greatest men that ever lived, told his 
physician that he had never, to his knowledge, lost a drop of semen. 
Other bachelors of note are named by authorities as classed with 
Newton. 

We wish to emphasize this idea because of the stupendous results 
flowing from a clear understanding of this matter. Let it be distinctly 
understood by every young man that the doctrine that incontinence is 
necessary to health is a device of Satan to lead pure manhood into 
the prostitute's perdition. The false reasoning in this case is the 
more readily accepted by men because it runs in the same direction 
their passions would lead them. It is our nature to look for some 
valid excuse for yielding to the importunities of our sexual natures; 
our consciences could then be put to sleep. 

The Sex-Force Within Man. Thus far we have simply combated 
the false notion that the loss of the vital fluid is essential to man. 
That is purely defensive; we propose now to take the offensive and 
marshal some irresistible battalions to show that it is of the highest 
value to keep the sex-force within man. 

Riddell, in his Child of Light, says: "A hint to the wise is suffi- 
cient. He who would improve any attribute of body, mind or soul and 
wield the scepter of power, who would feel in mature years the buoy- 
ancy of youth, should learn and obey the law of sex. He who would 
thrill with the power of magnetism and inspire others with its subtle 
force, who would realize the romance of love and the poetry of an 



274 SOCIAL PURITY. 

ardent soul, who would feel ambition mount from weird earth to 
vaulted sky, and know the potency of noble aspirations, should retain 
the sex-force within his being. He who would be able to reason 
clearly and comprehend readily, who would vibrate with another's 
sympathy and feel another's woe, who would know what it is to be 
a free man and have that moral courage that will not bear a feather's 
weight of slavery's chain for small or great, who would stand in the 
presence of God and man an uncrowned king — resplendent with the 
glories of human achievements, conscious of the divinity there is in 
him — 'let him deny himself,' and follow the Christ in the life of 
chastity." 

The italics are ours. We do not hope to improve upon these state- 
ments of Riddell, but for the sake of emphasis and to multiply evi- 
dence on this important subject of retaining the life principle, we 
continue to quote. 

Continency and Chastity. Dr. Napheys says: "The man is 
continent who commits neither fornication, nor adultery, nor secret 
vice; but for all that, his mind may be foul as hell within, and he may 
nourish his fancy on vile imaginations. Such a one is not chaste. 
Only he, pure in thought and in life, who withstands and overcomes 
the promptings of his carnal nature, deserves this noble epithet; he it 
is who dwells in the condition of chaste celibacy, and we say at once, 
physically speaking, he alone escapes the disadvantages of celibacy, 
and he escapes them completely. We emphatically condemn, as a 
most pernicious doctrine, one calculated to work untold evil and to fos- 
ter the worst forms of vice, the theory that any injury whatever rises 
from a chaste celibacy. The organs are not weakened, nor their 
power lost, nor is there a tendency to spermatorrhoea, nor to conges- 
tion, nor to any one of these ills which certain vicious writers, and cer- 
tain superficial and careless physicians, have attributed to this state. 
No condition of life is more thoroughly consistent with perfect mental 
and physical vigor than absolute chastity." 

Newton says: "It is important to know there are other uses for 
the procreative element than generation of physical offspring; for 
better uses than its waste in momentary pleasure. . . . This element 
when retained in the system may be coined into new thoughts, per- 
haps new inventions, grand conceptions of the true, the beautiful, the 



A LIFE OF CHASTITY IS A LIFE OF STRUGGLE. 275 

useful; or into fresh emotions of joy and impulses of kindness and 
blessing to all around. This, in fact, is but another department of 
procreation. It is the procreation of thoughts, ideas, feelings of 
good-will, intuition; that is, it is procreation on the mental and spir- 
itual planes, instead of physical. It is just as really a part of the 
genitive function as is the begetting of physical offspring. Indeed, it 
is by far the greater part, for physical procreation can ordinarily be 
participated in but seldom; while mental and spiritual procreation 
may and should go on perpetually through all our earthly lives; yea, 
through all our immortal existence. Every idea is an intellectual 
child, and if it be a pleasant thing to have physical sons and daugh- 
ters, what are the power, the opulence, the enjoyments of him who 
abounds in ideas, the beautiful and the immortal sons and daughters 
of the soul?" 

A Life of Virtue is a Life of Health. Another writer says: "A life 
of virtue is a life of health. Self-denial leads to self-development on 
higher planes. Patient battling against lower lusts ends in assured 
victory. To one man, and to one only, is life worth living, and that 
man is he who resolves on nothing less than perfection of the body, 
mind and soul." 

Re-absorption of the Male Principle. Among physicians and other 
scientific investigators, there is a diversity of opinion concerning the 
secretion and absorption of the seminal fluid. Perhaps the real facts 
may be summed up as follows: The amount of secretion differs greatly 
among men. It is, as a rule, secreted only in quantities during sexual 
excitement, either mental or physical. It will, ordinarily, if not 
ejected, be taken back into the general system by means of the 
lymphatic vessels. If, in healthy men, the secretions do occur with- 
out sexual excitement of any kind, the absorption by the lymphatics 
goes on naturally, and to the individual, unconsciously. In ordinary 
cases the seminal fluid, if not ejected, will be absorbed readily and 
carried back to the system, even if the amount be large through sexual 
excitement. But in case of long-continued or unusual excitement, 
there may be more work for the lymphatics than they can do; in that 
case nature must seek its natural outlet. But all agree that, if the 
sexual nature be perfectly controlled by the will, at the proper time, 
the absorption goes on naturally, and with the best of results for the 



276 SOCIAL PURITY. 

physical, moral and intellectual welfare of the man who thus controls 
himself. 

As a further evidence of what we have been discussing, we quote 
the substance of Dr. Acton's statements in his Reproductive Organs. 
In the first edition of his book he took the ground that the seminal 
fluid was not absorbed and taken back into the circulation; but in the 
later editions he proves quite conclusively that the semen, as such, on 
being taken back into the system, becomes an important factor in 
making vigorous manhood. He says that it is a generally received 
impression that the semen, after having been secreted in the testes, 
can be re-absorbed into the circulation, giving buoyancy to the feel- 
ings, and the manly vigor which characterizes the male. This power- 
ful vital stimulant animates, warms the whole economy, places it in a 
state of exaltation and organism; renders it in some sort more capable 
of thinking and acting with ascendancy. It is not certain elements 
remaining in the blood and not eliminated from it, which produce 
manly vigor or virility; if so, castration would produce it, instead of 
preventing its development. For true manly vigor to be apparent, 
man must be in good health, with sound organs generally, the testes 
normal and equal to the secretion of laudable semen, and to the 
retention of it so long as may be required for the natural reservoirs 
adapted to the purpose. 

The Effect of Castration on the. system is almost sufficient, alone, 
to lead to the inference that semen is re-absorbed. That semen has 
an influence on the system is obvious from the marked differences 
between castrated and non-castrated animals. These differences can 
not depend upon anything retained in the blood, and not excreted. 
The vigor of the uncastrated animal must depend upon the testes 
secreting semen; that is, taking its elements from the blood. Haller 
says that the greater part of the semen is pumped back into the blood, 
and there produces, as soon as it reaches the circulation, changes the 
most marvelous — the beard, the hair, the horns; it alters the voice 
and the manners, for age does not produce these changes in animals; 
it is the seminal fluid alone which can effect this, as we never remark 
these changes in eunuchs. 

Acton further cites the fact that losses of semen arising from mas- 
turbation, nocturnal pollutions or sexual excesses, enervate the 



A LIFE OF CHASTITY IS A LIFE OF STRUGGLE. 277 

sufferer and reduce him to a condition exactly opposite to that result- 
ing from continence. The conclusion is therefore drawn that semen 
plays a most important part in the human economy, and can be ill 
spared in the healthy, vigorous adult. 

There can be no doubt that entire horses are capable of undergo- 
ing more work than geldings. It is a saying that a stallion is equal 
in draught to one gelding and a half. 

From the foregoing discussion and citations we think it is quite 
thoroughly established that the loss of semen is not essential to vigor- 
ous health; that the retention of this life principle in the system is of 
infinite value, physically, intellectually and morally, to man, old or 
young. 

We started out by saying that there is a long battle for purity 
before every young man in good health. We have made it clear that 
no man can afford to throw away the procreating principle of life in 
order to satisfy his lust. But how shall the battle be successfully fought? 

The Battle for Purity— How Fought? First, by not letting false 
ideas of life and health pierce our moral armor. Perhaps no one 
thing has ever done so much to drag young manhood down as the 
false teaching that the loss of a certain amount of the life principle 
is essential to good health. It has smothered the consciences of a 
multitude of young men who wanted to be virtuous, but whose pas- 
sions cried out for satisfaction; the tempter whispered in the ear, 
"Nature demands relief;" the bars are thus left down, and the 
tempter walks in with all his persuasive powers. This false idea is at 
the root of that other falsehood that there are two standards of virtue, 
one for the man and another for the woman. 

The second step is to commence in time to win victories. Every 
victory won makes the next one easier; every defeat makes the next 
victory more difficult. The battle must be fought in the will. Here 
we must commence in time. It is possible, by mere force, to hold 
down the safety-valve or to close the throttle-valve; but the better 
way is to keep down the fires — do not let the steam generate. Com- 
mence in time! Let the first lascivious thought or the first impure 
glance be checked. 

An Attorney's Method. Many years ago an old, gray-headed 
attorney-at-law explained to the writer his method of conducting a 



278 SOCIAL PURITY. 

case in court. It was something after this manner: His first effort 
was to destroy the egg] if unsuccessful in this, his next effort was to 
kill the tadpole; if still unsuccessful, he put forth his best efforts to 
kill the young frog; if he failed in this, he put forth his supreme effort 
to kill the bull-frog. To all who wish to fight a successful battle of 
sexual purity, this is good advice. To give way to our natural 
impulses is to let the egg of evil develop into at least the tadpole 
state, and perhaps it may reach the bull-frog state of passion that is 
usually successful in dodging our efforts to stone him to death. Rev. 
John Watson, the famous Scottish divine and writer, says in his 
unique way: 

Besetting Sin. "Various experiences of the secret life fill one 
with shame, but the persistence of a besetting sin drives one near to 
despair. Far back in childhood this evil visitor first appeared in our 
soul, and filled us with horror. We shrank from his touch, and 
ordered him out at the door. 

"For a while his face was not seen, and we had forgotten the inci- 
dent. » One day he is found hanging around the outskirts of our life 
like a restless, predatory vagrant, and after a few months, when we 
are accustomed to his appearance, he crosses the threshold and pleads 
for house-room. 

"Times there are when we drive him forth in anger; times there 
are when we endure his presence. He comes to have his place and 
his employment in our soul, a vagabond of whom we are ashamed, 
but whom we tolerate, whom we condemn, but whom we would miss. 
Now and again our conscience awakes and arises to put the house in 
order, and then there is a fiery scene, and our unholy lodger is ban- 
ished, with strict warning never to return. Within a few days the 
unabashed figure finds the door unlatched and makes for his accus- 
tomed corner with a leer, and we are so disheartened that it seems no 
use to dispute his coming. ' ' 

"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, 
and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: 
and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." — James i, 14, 15. 

Perhaps one of the greatest avenues of temptation to man is 
through the eye. The Bible speaks of "the lust of the flesh, and the 
lust of the eyes." Many noble men, in mature life, while struggling 



A LIFE OF CHASTITY IS A LIFE OF STRUGGLE. 279 

to keep their minds undefined, would give their good right arm if they 
could banish forever some things that return at times to vex their 
pure minds. Some lewd picture, some impure book or some vile story 
that was seen, read or heard during their youthful days will return in 
spite of all efforts to keep them from the mind. Thousands of beau- 
tiful views have vanished from the mind, never to return; books of 
the highest value have dissolved themselves into our being, and per- 
haps are a part of our moral and intellectual fiber, but as entities are 
gone from the mind. But, oh, those scars of impure thoughts on the 
mind are there, and will again and again reappear. Our "con- 
sciences" may be "purged," but not the memory. Kill the tadpole 
if possible, if too late to destroy the egg. 

Nerve Centers in the Brain. It is well known among scientists 
that each faculty of mind and organ of the body has its own nerve 
center in the brain. If any part of the brain be injured, the mental 
powers and bodily organs that have their nerve centers in the injured 
parts will be affected. Likewise, if any particular organs of the body 
or powers of mind be exercised, cultivated, trained, there is a cor- 
responding growth in the brain-cells governing these powers and 
organs. There may be some doubt as to whether the cells multiply 
in number, but there is no question that these brain-cells grow in size 
and activity, by exercising the mental and physical powers. 

Bird-dogs, known as "pointers," have the organs of smell highly 
trained, and the brain-cells governing these olfactory nerves are cor- 
respondingly developed; but having but little use for the sense of 
hearing, these same dogs have lost all control of the outer ear, which, 
as a result, hangs flabbily on the side of the head. The dog whose 
sight and hearing have been trained has perfect control of the outer 
ear. The cause of the loss or gain of power over special organs lies 
in the special brain-cells governing these organs. 

A large number of highly entertaining illustrations of these things 
could be given, but we simply cite the above in order to 
emphasize the fact that the power rests within ourselves to control 
our destiny by controlling our own powers. 

Following this thought into the realm of the sexual powers, we 
find the same law -governing. A certain part of the brain governs the 
sexual powers and organs. A constant dwelling upon sensual things, 



280 SOCIAL PURITY. 

permitting the imagination to revel in lascivious visions, strengthens 
the sexual powers, and in time, a very short time, they will get beyond 
the power of the will to control them. Day-dreams and night visions 
of this nature may be pleasing, but they are infatuations that lead to 
mental, moral and physical degeneracy. A well-beaten path is the 
more easily followed. If an evil thought once finds lodgment in the 
mind, even temporarily, the path by which it came will mark the road 
for many others of the same nature; the more the path is trodden the 
smoother becomes the road by which evil thoughts reach the mind, 
and the more difficult it is to resist them. 

The illustrations given above hold good in all mental processes, 
whether the thought be high or low, noble or ignoble, pure or impure. 
A knowledge of these laws of growth leads us to spend many years in 
school in order to train the mind for future usefulness. But there is 
a silent, unconscious influence governing the mind of every one, 
either for good or ill, perhaps for both. Our purpose here is more 
especially to warn against permitting sexual, sensual thoughts to con- 
trol us. A sexual thought under proper control and under proper 
conditions is both lawful and proper; it is not evil in itself. But we 
should control the thought and not permit lascivious visions to control 
us. Kill the tadpole, if too late to destroy the egg. 

The Mind the Source of all Evil. We bring to the notice of the 
reader further evidence of what we have been trying to impress upon 
the mind. 

Dr. Dio Lewis, in his Chastity, says: ''Believing that the incon- 
tinence of the imagination works more mischief than all other forms 
of the evil — that, indeed, it gives rise to all the rest — I am astounded 
that it has received so little attention. . . . All overt sins and crimes 
begin, we know, in the thoughts or imagination. A young man 
allows himself to conjure up visions of naked females. These 
become habitual and haunt him, until at last the sexual passion 
absorbs not only his waking thoughts, but his very dreams. Now, if 
his education and surroundings make actual intercourse impractic- 
able, he will probably fall into masturbation, or, if forewarned in 
regard to that destructive practice, he may restrain himself from all 
outward indulgence while he still riots in lascivious fancies. . . . 



A LIFE OF CHASTITY IS A LIFE OF STRUGGLE. 281 

How many of us could wear a window in our breasts withou cover- 
ing our faces for shame?" 

" Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not 
commit adultery: But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a 
woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in 
his heart." — Matt, v, 27, 28. 

Note carefully that nervous disorders and other bodily ills, to say 
nothing of the moral and spiritual degeneracy, overtake the mental 
fornicator. Unless the foundation of our being be kept pure, the 
whole becomes impure, unclean, corrupt. 

Controlling Your Thoughts. Some vigorously protest that they 
can not control their thoughts. Perhaps not, if it be that they did 
not begin in time. 

A faithful teacher of a country school observed that something was 
wrong with two of her boys, one about fourteen, and the other 
seventeen. After observing them carefully for several weeks, she 
was impelled to speak to each privately. The younger boy broke 
down and confessed that he was "thinking about it all the time." 
The elder lad was at first unyielding, but finally made about the same 
confession as the smaller boy. Both boys thanked their teacher for 
her faithfulness, and promised to be watchful of their thoughts and 
acts in the future. 

Dr. Dio Lewis gives a number of interesting cases that came under 
his observation. These persons had all the symptoms that pointed 
to immoderate sexual indulgence, but each firmly denied that he had 
in any way committed any offense against any woman. But by close 
inquiry, he found that each had indulged in lascivious thoughts during 
the day and in dreams by night. One unmarried man nearly forty 
years old, who, by all was classed as a very Joseph in his purity, con- 
fessed, like the boy mentioned above, that he was "thinking about it 
all the time." 

As the fire generates the steam, it is extremely difficult to suppress 
the power of the steam while the fires are in full blast. Put out the 
fires or "bank" them. 

Safe Rule. The only method of controlling our sexual passions is 
to "switch" the mind off on some other subject. This is not always 
easy to do. Many times the whole being is saturated with sexualism, 



282 SOCIAL PURITY. 

mentally and physically, and it is difficult, under those conditions, to 
hold the mind to any other subject. 

Dr. Dio Lewis suggests the card system as a method by which the 
mind may be directed into other channels. In substance, it is as fol- 
lows: Write on a card several subjects with which you are familiar; 
subjects that will suggest ideas or recall former experiences. When 
an impure or lascivious thought enters the mind or attempts to enter, 
take out the card and think on some one of the subjects there named. 
In that way the mind may be "switched" on to more welcome subjects. 

Immodest Dress. Our lady friends insist that men have no right 
to have their sexual passions aroused by the sight of the female form 
when too much exposed by low-necked dress or some other fascinat- 
ing methods of showing a symmetrical outline. Such mode of dress 
finds no objectors in those men who delight in sexual excitement and 
do not care to conquer their passions. Perhaps a few men are so 
refined, so pure-minded, so icicle-like in their nature, that this form of 
dress has no effect upon them. But men who are fighting a desper- 
ate battle for personal purity have a right to ask the other sex to aid 
them so far as possible. The idea that a card system or any other 
system is necessary or even helpful, may be news to our lady friends; 
but no sexually vigorous man, who is seeking to keep his sexual pas- 
sions under control, will dispute the fact that he needs all the help he 
can possibly receive. Doubtless it would shock a sensitive, refined 
lady to learn that she was making the battle more difficult to her 
friend of the other sex by her manner of dress. But it is, in a multitude 
of cases, too true. Man is not to blame for his strong sexual nature, 
if it came to him by inheritance. In fact, it is to his glory; it is a 
power within him that, if kept under control, makes him more manly 
and vigorous. 

Evil Influences. There are three methods of poisoning the mind 
of the young yet to be considered. We have already spoken on the 
subject of entertaining evil thoughts and allowing the imagination to 
revel in lascivious visions. Remember that this is fundamental. 
"Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." We are 
now to discuss the methods by which the mind may be poisoned. 
These are filthy conversation, lewd pictures and vicious reading. 
Some authorities carry the idea that the first, vile conversation? is 



A LIFE OF CHASTITY IS A LIFE OF STRUGGLE. 283 

fruitful of more evil than bad books or lewd pictures. It is possible 
that conversation may be broader in its evil results, but it does not 
burn as deeply as do either bad books or vile pictures. 

Filthy Conversation. In speaking of vulgar conversation, Profes- 
sor Bryant says: "There are the professors (professors of vulgarity) 
who are preparing our boys for saloon loafers and general bums, 
where they complete their course in all branches of whoredom. It 
makes me blush when I think how filthy men sometimes get. . . . 
These vulgar stories would corrupt the morals of angels. Jesus said, 
■ Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. ' These 
stories are but the effervescence of the boiling soul. From a pure 
heart no such can come. This is the junior department of the great 
university which prepares men for the work of ruining homes and 
blighting the lives of the innocent. From this they enter into train- 
ing for all branches of crime. They are found on almost every line 
of railroad from Maine to California. They appear in the capacity 
of 'mashers,' and they are skilled in their art. . . . 

Social Purity Our Goal. "Talk of social purity, but you can never 
see it until you have dried up the fountain at the source of the stream 
— the fountain of corruption that flows from the mouths of vulgar 
blackguards. No man who will sit around and tell vulgar stories is lit 
to be received into decent society. The church should withdraw from 
him, and social ethics should say to him, 'Stand outside until you 
have been cleansed from your filth.' . . . Do not look upon adultery 
or adulterous conversation as honorable in man. It poisons the mind. 
It takes from his nature all that is holy and pure, and leaves him a 
moral wreck. Treat an adulterous man as you would treat his fallen 
sister — sever your acquaintance with him until he has reformed; then 
help him. To foster a licentious man in society is like fondling a 
viper in the bosom." 

We can not handle dirt without becoming dirty; so young men 
can not be in the presence of filthy talk and stories without becoming 
contaminated. But worse than this, if possible, are the false ideas that 
youth receive through this bar-room, loafer talk. It comes about in 
this way: 

Boy's Highest Ambition. The highest ambition of a vigorous, 
wide-awake boy in his teens is to be a man. This is a commendable, 

19 



284 SOCIAL PURITY. 

noble aspiration, and should be encouraged. But it is through this 
very ambition, perverted, that boys and young men are led astray. 
Some lecherous old rake, with tobacco juice driveling down the 
corners of his mouth, tells in the presence of young men and boys 
what he used to do when he was a young man ; how many girls had 
lost their virtue through his persuasive methods. The chances are 
that the whole story is a string of falsehoods from beginning to end, 
with, perhaps, a mere glimmer of truth in all the hellish darkness. 
For a youth to be called "mamma's boy," or to be accused of being 
"tied to his mother's apron string," or to be given to understand that 
if he has not seduced some young girl, he is a "chump," "behind the 
times;" all this is more than many young men can endure. They 
become ashamed of themselves for their want of enterprise. Their 
ambition, perverted, it is true, but yet it is an ambition, is to be a man. 
The idea is a filthy tramp traveling with good company on the 
"limited." 

To reinforce these powers of darkness, comes the young man's 
own passions to blind his better judgment. It is one of the weak- 
nesses of human nature, from the highest to the lowest, from the most 
ignorant to the most highly cultured, to permit the wish to pervert 
the judgment. Could a youth but clearly see where such vicious rea- 
soning would lead him, he would fleefrom it as from a pestilence. It 
is a strange perversion of nature for men who worship the Author of 
the Golden Rule to so cruelly violate all its principles when associ- 
ated with their sexual relations. We more than suspect that they 
will hear that same Author say: "I know you not whence ye are; 
depart from me all ye workers of iniquity." — Luke xiii, 27. 

Would any young man even of low grade of morals think it manly 
to have his own sister heartlessly led astray? Would the lecherous 
married rake think it a mark of nobility to have his own wife, the 
mother of his children, hold immoral intercourse with a man of his 
own stripe? Would the married man who so glories in telling young 
men what he used to do, be willing to have any of those listening 
youth try their persuasive powers upon his own daughters? Would 
the young man, who has got it into his adulterous heart that he must 
get from under the stigma that continence has thus far kept him, 
want his expected bride to be of the number that has been in adultery 



A LIFE OF CHASTITY IS A LIFE OF STRUGGLE. 285 

with those "manly" knights of the dry-goods box? We appeal to all 
that is manly in the character of young men to banish forever such 
vile reasoning, such unholy standards of morality, such a shock to all 
ethical reasoning. Young man, anything that will make your 
mother, your sister, your bride unclean, unchaste, is vile in you. 

Wrongdoer Will Suffer Wrong. In order to emphasize our posi- 
tion on this subject we quote a few sentences from Emerson's Com- 
pensation: "A man can not speak but he judges himself. With his 
will or against his will he draws his own portrait to the eye of his 
companion by every word. Every opinion reacts on him who utters 
it. It is a threaded ball thrown at a mark but the other end remains 
in the thrower's bag. . . . You can not do wrong without suffering 
wrong. . . . Whilst I stand in simple relations to my fellow-man I 
have no displeasure in meeting him. We meet as water meets water 
or as two currents of air mix with perfect diffusion and interpretation 
of nature. But as soon as there is any departure from simplicity 
and attempt at halfness or good for me that is not good for him, my 
neighbor feels the wrong; he shrinks from me as far as I have shrunk 
from him; his eyes no longer seek mine ; there is war between us; there 
is hate in him and fear in me." The italics are ours. 

Inexcusable Sin. We have been trying in the last few pages to 
fortify young men against the vicious teaching that anything intrin- 
sically wrong can by any possibility be manly. Fornication and 
adultery are by all honest standards, inexcusably sin and wrong under 
all circumstances. All lascivious thoughts and filthy conversation are 
temptations to wrongdoing; if not to wrongdoing, at least to wrong 
conclusions. 

Reading and Pictures. We now come to the subject of reading 
and pictures, and their influence on character. George T. Lemmon 
has the following to say about the influence of reading: 

1 'But there is so much to read. Shall I read anything and every- 
thing I can get my hands on?' By no means. You must be more 
careful of what you read than of what you eat. One-half of the 
youths in our prisons and houses of correction started on their evil 
careers by reading worthless novels. These blood-and-thunder 
romances are the nicotine and alcohol of literature, and they poison 
and burn and blast the head just as surely as their cousins do the 



286 SOCIAL PURITY. 

stomach. When Garfield was a boy he read The Pirates' Own Book, 
He wanted to go to sea at once. He would get rich off prizes also. 
Why trudge the towpath when glory and wealth were waiting for him 
on the high seas? It took all the grip his good mother had upon the 
fatherless lad to keep him ashore, but she did, and years later she had 
her reward when that lad, preserved from the contagion of an evil 
book, turned from kissing the Good Book, on which he sealed the oath 
which made him President of the United States, to kiss that dear old 
mother's lips. Had Garfield turned sailor he would never have been 
President. But many another lad read that same pirate book who 
had no Christian mother to save him from the consequences. ' ' 

Bad Books. Rev. Dr. Leonard has the following to say about the 
influence of bad books and pictures: "I suppose if we stop to think 
for a single moment, we may all readily understand what effect an 
impure picture or an impure book has upon the mind of a child or 
youth. I remember to-night an instance in my boyhood, when I was 
not more than twelve years of age, and I was shown a book — a vile 
book — by a German shoemaker. He came through the region of 
country where I lived, and the pictures that were in that book are 
now in my mind to-night as clearly as when I first looked upon them. 
Other pictures of beauty have faded out, but those pictures somehow 
have remained; and I have said to myself again and again, I will turn 
that picture away from my memory and won't think of it again. Yet 
as often as I think of that German shoemaker, that vile book stands 
out again before my mind. And so I think it is with childhood, gen- 
tlemen; in the early period of life a vile picture is hung up in the 
chambers of the mind, and it remains there during all future 
years. 

"It is possible for them in youth to reform and break away from 
these deadly, these dreadful influences, but the memory, I think, will 
remain. I remember years ago having heard John B. Gough in one 
of his magnificent lectures, referring to his early life and the experi- 
ences through which he had passed. I remember his saying that 
there were sins in his early life that he would to God he might forget; 
that he had tried to banish them from his mind, but they would not 
be banished. As we who are growing older look back into the past, 
we remember how difficult it is to blot out a picture of that kind — 



A LIFE OF CHASTITY IS A LIFE OF STRUGGLE. 287 

how difficult it is to put it away. And so it is extremely important to 
protect our children and youth against the influence of vile pic- 
tures. ' ' 

There are probably but few men who have reached middle age but 
what could duplicate this experience. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

WHAT A YOUNG MAN SHOULD KNOW — LOVE. 

The word love has many shades of meaning, but in no case does it 
express an abstract idea; it is objective in its manifestation; it is 
directed toward some object of affection. A parent loves his child, a 
brother his sister, the philanthropist his race. Then there is a higher 
love known as charity that "suffereth long and is kind." 

But the love of one sex for the other has all the elements of the 
other loves plus sexual desire. Because sexual desire permeates all 
conjugal love — is the foundation of such love — many believe it to be 
the sum and substance of all love between the sexes. Many sensitive 
wives have misgivings, at times, at least, as to the character and 
purity of their husband's love. Doubtless many have abundant rea- 
son for such misgivings, but let it be understood that man does not 
live in the cellar because his house has a foundation. 

Noblest Trait of Manhood. The most noble traits of manhood 
spring from his sexual nature. Great men of all ages have been 
strongly sexed. On the other hand, it is well known that the eunuchs 
found in the harems of Turkey, India and China are cold, selfish, 
unfeeling, treacherous and cruel. 

Newton N. Riddell, in A Child of Lights says: "Sex power, if 
retained in the system during youth and adult life, is converted into 
magnetism, vitality, energy, vivacity, memory, creative fancy, origin- 
ality, aspiration, moral courage, sympathy, life, manhood and woman- 
hood. ' ' 

"Were man," says Maudsley, "to be robbed of the instinct of 
procreation and all that arises from it mentally, nearly all poetry and, 
perhaps, the entire moral sense as well, would be torn from his life." 

Dr. James F. Scott, in The Sexual Instinct, says: "This normal 
sexual instinct, then, actuates men and women to love each other, to 
pair off in marriage, to found homes and to provide for the expected 
offspring; and the sexual feelings exercise a directive power over most 
of the activities of life — moulding our religion, our literature, our art, 

288 



WHAT A YOUNG MAN SHOULD KNOW. 289 

our etiquette, and, in short, influencing almost every impulse of 
human endeavor which is not attributable to self-preservation." 

Dr. Chas. A. Hoff says: "Love is the powerful magnet which 
draws two souls together. It is the instinct which God has implanted 
within our being, the possession of which makes us better, purer and 
nobler than does the accumulated and combined influences of all the 
other qualities of heart and soul. Love's death would mean the 
annihilation of all our species." 

Is Wife's Love Purer than Husband's? Some writers and thinkers 
claim that the love of the wife and mother is much more pure, unself- 
ish and profound than that of the husband and father. Perhaps 
there is a difference, but we are inclined to the opinion of Lyman B. 
Sperry, in his Husband and Wife, where he says: "I insist that men 
naturally can, and do, love as purely, as deeply, as absorbingly, as 
wonderfully as women. Give sex the same environment and equal 
obligations, social, legal and commercial; give them the same or 
equivalent occupations and duties; hold each to the same degree and 
kind of social and moral accountability, and we shall see that, while 
they naturally differ somewhat in taste, impulses and judgment, 
neither is the superior of the other in constancy of love, in depth of 
devotion, in purity of heart or in chastity of conduct. Our present 
conditions and customs are so artificial that it is difficult to discover 
just what is natural. ... If we were to punish the man for infidelity 
as surely, promptly and fiercely as we now stone the woman for 
offenses against virtue; if we were to have the same code of morals 
for each, female prostitutes would soon be as abundant as male liber- 
tines;" but there would be fewer libertines. 

A German work, translated into English by Dr. C. B. Chaddock, 
is authority for the following statements: "In coarse, sensual love, in 
the lustful impulses to satisfy the natural instinct, man stands on a 
level with the animal, but it is given to him to raise himself to a 
height where this natural instinct no longer makes him a slave; 
higher, nobler feelings are awakened, which, notwithstanding their 
sensual origin, expand into a world of beauty, sublimity and morality. 

"Sexuality is the most powerful factor in individual and social 
existence; the strongest incentive to the exertion of strength and 
acquisition of property, to the founding of a home, and to the 



290 SOCIAL PURITY. 

awakening of altruistic feelings, first for a person of the opposite sex, 
then for the offspring, and, in a wider sense, for all humanity. Thus 
all ethics and, perhaps, a good part of aesthetics and religion depend 
upon the existence of sexual feeling. Though the sexual life leads to 
the highest virtues, even to the sacrifice of the ego, yet in its sensual 
force lies also the danger that it may degenerate into powerful pas- 
sions and develop the grossest vices. Love as an unbridled passion 
is like a fire that burns and consumes everything, like an abyss that 
swallows all — honor, fortune, well-being." 

Noblest Powers May be the Means of Debasing. These are 
strong, clear, bold statements which we believe to be correct. It 
seems to be the law of our being that those powers and gifts which 
are capable of lifting us to the highest ideals of life, may also be the 
means of debasing us to the lowest depths of infamy. We shrink 
somewhat from granting the statements that our sexual natures are 
the foundation of most of our nobler virtues, such as chivalry, patri- 
otism, self-sacrifice, love of home, the base of poetry and art, and, in 
fact, all expression of our aesthetic nature; the foundation even of our 
higher and nobler religious impulses. But the evidence points in 
that direction. We further quote from the same authority: "The 
sexual factor proves to be no less influential in awakening aesthetic 
feelings. What would poetry and art be without a sexual foundation? 
In sexual love is gained that warmth of fancy without which a true 
creation of art is impossible; and in the fire of sensual feeling its glow 
and warmth are preserved. This world of ideals reveals itself with 
the inception of the processes of sexual development. 

"Youthful Love has a romantic, idealistic character. It elevates 
the beloved object to apotheosis. With the awakening of sensuality 
there is danger that this idealizing power may be brought to bear 
upon persons of the opposite sex who are mentally, physically and 
socially of inferior station. Thus there may be seductions and errors, 
with the whole tragedy of a passionate love that comes in conflict 
with the dictates of social position and prospects, and sometimes 
terminates in suicide or double suicide. 

"Over-sensual love can never be lasting and true. For this reason 
the first love is, as a rule, very fleeting. It is a flame of a fire of 
Straw, Love expresses itself in acts of heroism and danger. The 



WHAT A YOUNG MAN SHOULD KNOW. 291 

love of a weakly constituted man is sentimental. This sort of love is 
in danger of becoming a caricature. It is flat, soft, and may even be 
silly. Notwithstanding all the ethics which love requires in order to 
develop into its true and pure form, its strongest root is still sensu- 
ality. Platonic love is an impossibility, a self-deception, a false 
designation for related feelings." 

What is Real Love? Real love can be considered so only when 
the whole person is both physically and mentally the object of adora- 
tion and devotion. Love, to be such, must have the desire to possess 
the object of affection. But when the satisfaction of sensual pleasure 
is the only object of possession, without the desire to possess the 
heart and enjoy the communion of companionship, then love is not 
genuine. It becomes a farce, unworthy of a high-minded man or 
woman. True love is born of God, is nourished in chastity, and 
develops into a divine likeness. 

Marriage. In the chapters on Heredity, Prenatal Culture and 
other preceding topics, much that logically belongs under the head of 
the marriage relation has been discussed and need not be repeated here. 

It is superfluous to dwell on those matters which are well under- 
stood by all intelligent people, especially so where there is no specific 
evil flowing therefrom. But the conscience of the American people 
needs to be aroused to many evils that pervade their social relations. 
Our judgment and conscience warn us of danger, but our selfish 
desires put our better natures to sleep. "I see no harm in this or 
that," is one opiate. "Other people do so," is another. If we would 
see, we must open our eyes, not, ostrich-like, put our heads under cover. 

It is sometimes necessary to spur the horse, or goad the lazy ox. 
It also becomes necessary at times to sound the danger signal, or to 
shake a sleepy man into conscious activity. 

The Family Relations Ordained by God. "The institution of mar- 
riage lies at the foundation of Church and State. Marriage is the 
Gibraltar of virtue, the basis of the home, the bulwark of the com- 
monwealth. ... It was founded in Eden by God himself. It was 
hallowed in Cana of Galilee by the presence and benediction of our 
divine Lord. It is protected by the laws of all Christian nations, and 
is in an especial sense fostered, guarded and held sacred by the Chris- 
tian Church. Upon its sanctity and integrity, and much more upon 



292 SOCIAL PURITY. 

the accomplishment through it of the ends of its institution, does 
everything depend. ' ' The above are statements concerning this time- 
honored, Christ-blessed institution found in Sinclair's The Crown- 
ing Sin of the Age. He also adds: "When God created Adam and 
gave him dominion over the magnificent paradise of creation, He said, 
'It is not good for man to be alone; I will make a help meet for him.' 
. . . Man without woman was incomplete. Humanity without 
woman was but half created." Quaint old Matthew Henry says: 
"She was not made out of his head to top him, not out of his feet to 
be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal to him, 
under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be loved." 

Marriageable Ages. In Austria a "man" and "woman" are sup- 
posed to be capable of conducting a home of their own from the age 
of fourteen. 

In Germany the man must be at least eighteen years of age. 

In France the man must be eighteen and the woman fourteen; in 
Belgium the same age. 

In Spain the intended husband must have passed his fourteenth 
year and the woman her twelfth. 

In Hungary, for Roman Catholics, the man must be fourteen 
years old and the woman twelve; for Protestants, the man must be 
eighteen and the woman fifteen. 

In Greece the man must have seen at least fourteen summers and 
the woman twelve. 

In Portugal a boy of fourteen is considered marriageable and a 
girl of twelve. 

In Russia and Saxony they are a little more sensible, and a youth 
must refrain from entering into matrimony till he can count eighteen 
years and the woman till she can count sixteen. 

In Switzerland men from the age of fourteen and the women from 
the age of twelve are allowed to marry. 

In Turkey any youth and maiden who can walk properly and can 
understand the necessary religious service are allowed to be united 
for life. 

The Same Standard of Virtue for Both Sexes. Man is a bundle 
of inconsistencies. Like a guide-board, he often points in opposite 
directions at the same time, 



WHAT A YOUNG MAN SHOULD KNOW. 293 

The author of the Declaration of Independence was, at the time 
he wrote it, a slave-holder. "We hold these truths to be self-evi- 
dent, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, 
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. ' ' All America approved these 
sentiments, our fathers were proud of them when proclaimed to an 
admiring world, yet many of them held the black man in bond- 
age, and others, with scarce an exception, justified the system of 
slavery. 

Men who followed the Author of the Golden Rule as their 
divine leader, until recent years advocated the doctrine of human 
slavery. 

These unseemly contradictions are still found in civilized Christian 
communities. "Thou shalt not commit adultery" was not intended 
for one sex alone. What is adultery in the woman is also adultery in 
the man. The "scarlet letter" should be worn by both, and with 
equal conspicuousness. Before God and conscience there is but one 
judgment for both. In his admirable book on Chastity \ Dio Lewis 
gives an account of a man who came to him in a nervous breakdown, 
on the very verge of insanity. 

A Heroine, Though Fallen. The man's wife, who had been at a 
summer resort, had been led astray by a heartless libertine. In a 
penitent letter to her husband, she had bravely confessed all. We 
quote her letter in part: "My outraged, but adored husband, I have 
fallen. God only knows how it happened. It seems a horrid dream. 
May God forgive me! I am sure you never can." 

The young husband's outraged feelings found expression in these 
words: "I will not kill her; I will not touch her; but as soon as I get 
possession of my little girls, the woman can go back to her paramour. 
I will never see her again." 

All this seems to you but natural in a wronged husband. But 
listen. On closer inquiry, the doctor found that this badly-abused 
young husband had frequently visited a young woman in a neighbor- 
ing town, and he confessed that he had been in the habit of visiting 
an unchaste woman in New York while making business trips to that 
city. On further inquiry by the doctor concerning the former con- 
duct and purity of the young wife, the husband replied: "Why, sir, 



294 SOCIAL PURITY. 

she is crystallized truth and would not tell a lie to save her body from 
the flames and her soul from perdition. She can not lie." We here 
quote the substance of a two-hours' plea to the outraged husband as 
given by Dio Lewis himself. It is the whole subject of the same 
standard for both sexes in a nutshell. Note it carefully. 

"You, who have kept a mistress when living with your wife every 
day; you, who in another city have mingled with lewd women, and, I 
venture to say, have carefully concealed it from your wife; you, who 
have not scrupled to indulge your passions without limit, and have 
constantly practiced concealment; you have now heard that your 
wife, who has been absent from you two or three months, has been 
led astray in probably a single instance, by some practiced villain, 
and are raving like a maniac about it. Your wife is so brave, so true 
in her soul to you, that, at the peril of losing everything that, as a 
wife, a mother, she prizes most in the world, she has told you all. If, 
under such circumstances, with your own past, because this crystal 
of truth and devotion has been overcome by some artful scoundrel, 
you cast her off to the scorn of the world, you will richly deserve to be 
punished here and hereafter. If you were a Turk with fifty female 
slaves in your harem, it would be another case. But your wife is a 
free woman, and, by your own confession, a hundred times nobler and 
purer than yourself, and now you are raving mad because once in her 
life she has done what you have been doing ever since you stood at 
the altar and vowed before God that you would be true to her so long 
as you both should live. . . . You, one party to the vow, have vio- 
lated it, ... I presume, twenty times during her absence this sum- 
mer. . . . And now, as she lies prostrate at your feet, you fall into a 
furious rage at the monstrous wrong done you. . . . The fact is, most 
men don't believe that the marriage contract is binding upon both 
parties. They have their own little irregularities, and joke about 
them; but let a wife lapse and the husband howls with <rage. . . . 
Men seem to think they own their wives. They don't believe it is a 
partnership; it is an ownership. I am tired, sick, disgusted and indig- 
nant at the attitude of men toward women." 

The reader may wish to know what effect this strong language 
produced. In this particular case it appears that, with all his faults, 
the man had some character, as shown by the following telegram to 



WHAT A YOUNG MAN SHOULD KNOW. 295 

the doctor: "God bless you. It is all over, and we shall be happier 
than ever!" 

"O consistency, thou art a jewel!" 

A White Life for Two. Let it not be understood for a moment 
that we condone the act of the unfaithful wife and mother in the 
above instance. We hold the same moral standard for both sexes; or, 
as Miss Willard put it, "A white life for two.'" Should society at 
large sternly demand the same moral purity in both sexes, it would 
cause a tremendous uplift in the moralization of the nation. So long 
as doting, mercenary mothers encourage, or even permit, their 
daughters to receive the attention of a known libertine, so long we 
may expect a low moral tone to pervade society. 

The Libertine and the Courtezan are in the same category and on 
the same level, whether acknowledged by society or not. If one is 
admitted to mingle among the pure and good, so should the other. 
Out upon the doctrine that an erring woman should be pointed at 
with the finger of scorn, while the defiled man should be courted and 
honored. 

Mrs. Ella Wheeler Wilcox expresses the standing of the two sin- 
ners in modern society, in the following poem. We say in modern 
society ', but the good time is coming when society will be more just, 
if not more merciful: 

The Two Sinners. 

"There was a man, it was said, one time, 
Who went astray in his youthful prime. 
Can the brain keep cool and the heart be quiet, 
When the blood's a river that's running riot? 
And 'boys will be boys,' so the old folks say, 

'And the man is the better who's had his day.' 

The sinner reformed, and the preacher told 

Of the prodigal son who came back to the fold. 

And the Christian people threw open the door 

With a warmer welcome than ever before. 

Wealth and honor were his to command, 

And a spotless woman gave him her hand. 

The world strewed her pathway with flowers a-bloom, 

Crying, 'God bless lady, and God bless groom.' 



296 SOCIAL PURITY. 

"There was a maiden who went astray, 
In the golden dawn of life's young day. 
She had more passion and heart than head, 
And she followed blindly where fond love led. 
And love unchecked is a dangerous guide 
To wander at will by a fair girl's side. 

The woman repented and turned from sin, 

But no door was opened to let her in. 

The preacher prayed that she might be forgiven, 

But told her to look for mercy in heaven. 

For this is the law of the earth we know, 

That the woman is scorned, while the man may go. 

A brave man wedded her after all; 

But the world said, frowning, 'We shall not call.' " 

After the above poem was put in print, Mrs. Wilcox received the 
following letter from one who had experienced the cold mercy of an 
unfeeling world: 

Dear Madam: — Will you let me thank you for the poem entitled 
"The Two Sinners?" You who are so pure and charitable will under- 
stand the grateful feelings that one who was once a fallen woman 
must have toward you. I have found no mercy since I tried to regain 
my position among respectable people, and I despair of future hope. 
It may be that I shall return to my old life. Accept these few lines 
from one who is sincerely grateful. May we meet beyond the river. 
God bless you. 



CHAPTER XV. 

WHO SHOULD MARRY AND WHO SHOULD BEAR CHILDREN? 

From Dr. Elliot we glean the following: ''Nature meant that only 
the finest, strongest, most beautiful, and only those of most spirit, 
energy and brains should mate. This is shown among the lower 
animals in their natural state, and was true of the ancients; but in 
modern times any one and every one marries, regardless of their con- 
dition and of all reason. If children did not result from such unions, 
little harm would be done; however, if people who are unfit to become 
parents will marry, then let them avoid conceiving children." 

Who Should Not Marry. The following classes of people should 
not marry, or, if they marry, should have no children born to them; 
if they have an uncontrollable appetite for alcoholic liquors, or if 
contaminated with insanity, or have deep-seated scrofulous constitu- 
tions, or any disease that will impair the system and health of the 
offspring. No man should unite himself to a woman if he has any 
disease with which she may become infected. 

No man, young or old, who has a venereal disease, ought to marry 
until perfectly cured. First, it is an outrage to ask a pure woman to 
marry a man who has cohabited with harlots. But bad as it is, it is 
still worse to carry the harlot's foul disease to a virtuous woman that 
is to be the mother of one's children, and to transmit to'innocence so 
loathsome a disease. The following case came to the writer's notice: 
A young traveling man was engaged to marry a cultured, refined 
young woman from a well-to-do family. But he had been caught in 
the harlot's net, and as a result had gonorrhea. For two years the 
offensive disease hung on to him in spite of the best efforts of skilled 
physicians to rid him of it. In the meantime the family urged mar- 
riage. In fact, it came to a point where the parents of the lady 
demanded marriage or a breaking of the engagement. The young 
man had manhood enough to realize the crime he would commit to 
marry, but the prize was too valuable to lose, and compromising with 
his conscience, he concluded to run the risk, hoping by some mechan- 

297 



298 SOCIAL PURITY. 

ical means to avoid giving the odious disease to his bride. O man- 
hood, to what fearful depths hast thou fallen! 

Early Marriages. Very early marriages are injurious to the 
offspring, if there be any. The man is not up to his full standard of 
sexual power until he is from twenty-three to twenty-five years of 
age. But perhaps the worst feature of such marriages is the injury to 
the parents themselves. Youthful passions, lack of discipline and 
immature judgment lead the young couple into excesses which debil- 
itate all the powers and arrest the bodily and mental development of 
both. 

Again, love alone can not feed, clothe, educate and maintain a 
rapidly-increasing family. Sense, judgment, financial means are 
required to support and properly bring up a family. It is the duty of 
a young man to gravely consider the welfare of those who will be 
dependent upon him. A young man has no right to selfishly ask or 
expect a young woman to unite with him, to leave a well-provided home 
where her every need is supplied with loving solicitude, until he has 
made some provision to supply the necessities of a home. We say 
necessities, not the luxuries, of a home. If the young woman hap- 
pens to have something of her own, that ought to be laid aside as a 
nest-egg, to provide for emergencies which are sure to come, sooner 
or later, in the best regulated families. 

Many a young woman, thinking it a sign of greater love for her 
husband, has bestowed this upon her husband in the beginning of her 
married life, only to find that it would have been wiser, and a greater 
kindness to him and her dependent little ones, had she assumed the 
care of her money herself, and been able when misfortune came to 
meet the need with it. 

Prepare for a Home. Both young men and women should make 
some preparations for their home before marriage. This can be done 
by self-denial, and if one can not save a part of his earnings when 
he has but one to care for, what will he do when an establishment 
is to be provided for, and the household is constantly increasing? 

The love, though strong, will be put to the severest tests. Happy 
if it stand the trial, but most miserable if it fail. A middle-aged 
mother gives her testimony concerning her own early marriage some- 
what in this wise: She suffered in seeing her three children deprived 



WHO SHOULD MARRY, AND WHO SHOULD BEAR CHILDREN? 299 

of many educational advantages, medical treatment and the compan- 
ionship of helpful associates through her neglect in requiring that 
suitable preparations be made for their home before marriage. 
Neither she nor her husband was able to give their best to each other 
nor to their children, because of overtaxed systems and cramped cir- 
cumstances that continued to surround a rapidly-growing family. 
What folly then for immature young people to rush into marriage with 
all its attending responsibilities. Is it anything but folly and selfish- 
ness for a young man to feel that a young woman is heartless and 
selfish because she will not marry him on the spot when there are no 
preparations on which to build a home, or no visible means of sup- 
port? It is more unselfish in her to insist that they both deny them- 
selves in order that they and theirs be made happy later on. Love in 
a cottage is very pretty and proper, provided that there is also some- 
thing else there beside love on which to live. 

On the other hand, marriage may be postponed too long. The 
heart loses some of its elasticity and youthful vigor. The older the 
man and woman, the more fixed they become in their habits of life. 
Thought, feeling, tastes and practices become settled, making it more 
difficult for husband and wife to adjust themselves to each other. 

Elderly people should not marry with the intention of having chil- 
dren. It is a serious mistake for a man whose physical powers are 
declining to beget offspring; as such children, as a rule, are feeble in 
body and not vigorous in intellect. 

Temperaments. True love is the real foundation for marriage, 
and it can not exist where the parties are not at heart adapted to each 
other. True love is the natural s}^mpathy between two people who 
are suited to each other, and is the unseen force which attracts the 
one to the other. 

Dr. Elliot defines the term "temperament" as a state of the body 
with respect to the predominance of any single quality. He says: 
"If one has a predominance of the vital organs, he would be classed 
as of the vital temperament; if the brain and nervous system predom- 
inated, he would be of the nervous temperament; and if the bone and 
muscle system predominated, he would be of the bony or motive 
temperament. These are generally combined in every individual, but 

in varying proportions. Sometimes one temperament is excessively 
20 



BOO SOCIAL PURITY. 

developed and the others are deficient, or two may predominate and 
the others be deficient. 

"The physical and mental powers depend as to their development 
on one or the other of these temperaments. If the brain is in excess, 
that one will be strongest mentally; if the bones and muscles are in 
excess, then the physical powers will be most prominent, and so on. 
If all the temperaments are developed, the whole system will be 
strong. Nature intended that when two unite they should balance up 
each other's weakness and deficiencies so as to form one perfect 
whole; and this is of such vital importance that when disregarded 
marriage is more or less a failure, according to the extent of the 
discord. 

"Not only is the happiness of the contracting parties concerned, 
but also the welfare of their offspring in body and soul, for generation 
after generation may be made to suffer disease, misery and imperfec- 
tion from one discordant union. If two should marry who are pre- 
cisely alike in temperament their union would be sterile. Washington 
and Napoleon are instances of this, they both being childless, as their 
wives were of the same temperament as themselves." 

Dr. Jacques, on this subject, says: "Some physiologists have 
taught that the constitution of the parties in marriage should be sim- 
ilar, so as to insure similar tastes, habits and modes of thought; while 
others have contended that contrasts should be sought to give room 
for variety and prevent the stagnation of a level sameness. Neither 
of these statements expresses fully the true law of selection, though 
both are partly true. There can be no harmony without a difference, 
but there may be a difference without harmony. 

What Man Loves in Woman, and What Woman Loves in Man. 
"It is not that she is like him that a man loves a woman, but because 
she is unlike. For the same reason she loves him. The qualities 
which the one lacks are those which in the other attract and hold the 
fancy and the heart. The more womanly the woman, the greater her 
power overmen; and in proportion as she approaches the masculine 
in person or in character, will she repel the other sex; while a woman 
admires no less in man true manliness, and feels for effeminacy and 
weakness in him either pity or contempt." 

A too close similarity in constitution should be avoided, while a 



WHO SHOULD MARRY, AND WHO SHOULD BEAR CHILDREN? 301 

union of opposites is not insisted upon. One should seek in a life 
companion those higher qualities and characteristics which he or she 
finds lacking in himself or herself. One should be a complement to 
the other, that the united parts may form a complete, symmetrical 
whole. 

Should the mental temperament of man and wife be strongly 
developed, there would be a still further tendency to mental action 
which may already be too great; and they would transmit to their 
children an excessive development in this line, while the physical 
temperament might be sadly lacking. The vital or life-giving element 
in the constitution should be strong in one or the other parties to a 
union so that the children may be properly balanced. 

Aim for Proper Balance of Temperament. A man with an excess 
of mental temperament and little vital stamina should marry a woman 
abounding in vital qualities, or remain single. Should he marry a 
woman like himself in temperament, their children, if they had any, 
would probably be weak and puny. The excess of mental activity 
which they would inherit from such parentage would soon wear out 
their frail bodies. 

''Where the motive temperament is strongly indicated, there is 
needed in the one selected as partner for life a predominance of the 
vital or nutritive system to impart vivacity and cheerfulness to the 
family circle, and to transmit to offspring the proper degree of men- 
tal and physical activity, warmth, amiability and suavity of charac- 
ter, as well as to give a desirable softness and plumpness to the 
physical system; while a good development of the mental is requisite 
to refine and give intellectual power and aesthetic tastes." 

The point to be aimed at is a proper balance of temperaments so 
that the offspring may inherit an even development. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

WHAT A YOUNG MARRIED MAN SHOULD KNOW. 

The lover for months before marriage has been under restraint ; 
propriety, virtue, continence and other moral and virtuous forces have 
held his sexual passions under control. 

But now the wedding bells have chimed, the marriage vow has been 
spoken, and the temptation of the newly-made husband to claim the 
marital right comes upon him like the opening of the flood-gates; the 
bonds of restraint are strained to the point of breaking. Let us cau- 
tion the young husband that he still be the thoughtful lover; that he 
should continue to hold the animal passions in check. 

A rudeness, a want of that delicate consideration so prominent in 
the lover, may, and many times does, so shock the refined sensibilities 
of the newly-made bride, that she never recurs to this time without a 
shudder, of disgust or a feeling of regret and disappointment. In his 
haste to consummate the new relation, she has been rudely awak- 
ened to the thought that the one she fancied the embodiment of 
refinement and unselfishness is willing to risk her respect and love for 
the gratification of his untimely pleasure. Her heart sinks within 
her, and she wonders if this is all he wanted her for. These first 
impressions of doubt and disappointment, after a blissful courtship of 
tender thoughtfulness, are difficult to overcome. It may take years 
to efface them from the memory. 

Care of the Bride. Ignorance upon the part of the bride and 
ungoverned passion and lack _ of delicate attention on the part of the 
husband combine, many times, to cause serious difficulties and life- 
long regrets and even divorce. All this, perhaps, as the result of the 
first meeting in the bridal chamber. 

Rev. Sylvanius Stall, in Self and Sex Series, says: "It is enough 
to make a thoughtful and considerate man blush to think of the scores 
of wives who annually confess to their physicians that the only rape 
ever committed upon them was by their own husbands the first day of 
their married life. We recently heard of an instance where the. 

302 



WHAT A YOUNG MARRIED MAN SHOULD KNOW. 303 

expressed impatience and manifest impetuosity of the young husband, 
the moment he came into the bridal chamber with the young wife, 
awakened in her mind such a feeling of disgust that, after a brief 
parleying, the young wife left the room and refused ever to return to 
her husband, and thus terminated abruptly what, with thoughtful and 
considerate approaches and manifest affection, might have resulted in 
a union of lifelong happiness." 

We might add that, though there are few cases that result so dis- 
astrously as the one given above, there are multitudes of instances 
where the husband has had occasion to regret seriously the mistakes 
made by himself during the first few days of his married life. 

Be Kind and Considerate. In his Plain Talks on Avoided Sub- 
jects, Dr. Guernsey says: "Tenderly and with consideration should 
these privileges be accepted, for, contrary to the opinion of many 
men, there is no sexual passion on the part of the bride that induces 
her to grant such liberties. Then how exquisitely gentle and for- 
bearing should be the bridegroom's deportment on such occasions. 
Sometimes such a shock is administered to her sensibilities that she 
does not recover from it for years; and in consequence of this shock, 
rudely or ruthlessly administered, she forms a deeply-rooted antipathy 
against the very act which is the bond and seal of a truly happy mar- 
ried life." 

In The Relation of Sexes, Mrs. Duffy says: "Practice in lawful 
wedlock the arts of the seducer rather than the violence of the man 
who commits rape, and you will find the reward of your patience very 
sweet and lasting. If the young wife is met with violence, if she finds 
that her husband regards the gratification of his own desires more than 
her feelings — and if she be worn and wearied with excesses in the 
early days of her married life, the bud will be blighted. The husband 
will have only himself to blame if he is bound all his life to an 
apathetic, irresponsive wife. ' ' 

What has been said in the foregoing quotations refers more espe- 
cially to the violation of the feelings of the young wife, to the shocking 
of her finer sensibilities, to those things that breed misunderstanding, 
discord and antipathy. But there are physical disturbances to be 
avoided as well. 

Dr. Napheys says: "The consequence is that in repeated instances 



304 SOCIAL PURITY. 

the thoughtlessness and precipitance of the young husband lay the 
foundation for numerous diseases of the womb and nervous system; 
for the gratification of a night he forfeits the comfort of years. Let 
him be considerate, temperate and self-controlled. He will never 
regret it if he defer for days the exercise of those privileges which the 
law now gives him, but which are more than disappointing if seized 
upon in an arbitrary, coarse or brutal manner. ' ' 

Hymen a Jewel. In most young wives (virgins) there is present a 
thin membrane known as the hymen. This membrane sometimes is 
quite difficult to rupture and is attended with some pain, and after- 
ward with much soreness. The membrane itself is not especially 
sensitive, but the pain and soreness are due to its adherence to the 
walls of the vagina. This fact calls for much care and thoughtfulness 
on the part of the husband. Should this obstacle to entrance — the 
hymen — not be found, let not the young husband accuse his bride of 
want of chastity. Its presence is not a positive evidence of purity, 
neither is its absence proof of unchastity. Its absence may arise from 
disease or accident in childhood, as many physicians will testify. By 
giving or alluding to testimony in favor of the innocence of the bride, 
we would not have it understood that the presence of the hymen is 
not a soothing consolation to the young husband. We have spoken 
of this subject more at length in the chapter, "What a Bride Should 
Know." 

The knowledge on the part of the maiden that the presence of the 
hymen is expected by the bridegroom when she shall become his bride, 
has doubtless been a shield to many a girl against the temptation to 
yield to the persuasions of her would-be seducer. Let it still be 
remembered that it is better, much better, if the bearing of the bride 
be so pure and chaste that no explanation of its absence is necessary. 
It is infinitely better, if possible, to keep this jewel a sacred trust, to 
be delivered only, and alone, to the bridegroom. 

Passion in Women. Dr. Napheys says with proper emphasis: 
"Every woman, every physician, nearly every married man will sup- 
port us in what we are going to say. It is in reference to passion in 
woman. A vulgar opinion prevails that they are creatures of like 
passions with ourselves; that they experience desires as ardent, and 
often as ungovernable, as those which lead to so much evil in our sex. 



WHAT A YOUNG MARRIED MAN SHOULD KNOW. 305 

Vicious writers, brutal and ignorant men, and some shameless women 
combine to favor and extend this opinion." 

Nothing is further from the truth. Many a man thinks that some 
other man's wife is more responsive to her husband's ardent passion 
than is his own. While the husband referred to, judges his wife very- 
moderate in comparison to other women of his acquaintance whose 
natures he thinks he understands. Both husbands are probably mis- 
taken in their opinion, and should they compare notes, would find 
their wives in this respect considerably alike, while most other women 
of their acquaintance are not widely different. Only in rare instances 
do women experience one tithe of the sexual feeling which is familiar 
to men. 

Dr. Acton also says: "There are many females who never feel any 
sexual excitement whatever; others again, to a limited degree, are 
capable of experiencing it. The best mothers, wives and managers 
of households know little or nothing of sexual pleasure. Love of 
home, children and domestic duties are the only passions they feel." 

If young husbands knew these facts and would keep them in mind, 
it would, perhaps, materially cause them to govern their first marital 
acts and change their whole marriage course for the better. If, in this 
respect, he would be thoughtful and tender, considering first his young 
wife's comfort, not alone during the honeymoon, but through their 
united life, he would add to his own sexual pleasure in the long run, 
and preserve the respect and affection of a devoted, self-sacrificing 
wife. 

Counsel for the True Husband. The old English divine, in his 
Rules and Exercise of Holy Livings says: ''Married people must be 
sure to observe the order of nature and the ends of God. He is an ill 
husband that uses his wife as a man treats a harlot, having no other 
end but pleasure. The pleasure should always be joined to one or 
another of these ends — with a desire of children, or to avoid fornica- 
tion, or to lighten and ease the cares and sadness of household affairs, 
or to endear each other; but never with a purpose, either in act or 
desire, to separate sensuality from these ends which hallow it. Mar- 
ried people must never force themselves into high and violent lusts 
with arts and misbecoming devices, but be restrained in the use of 
their lawful pleasures. ' ' 



306 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Should all married men heed the advice of the first quoted author, 
what a flood of sunshine would brighten the homes of our land where 
now is darkness, discontent and discord. Said a foreign visitor: 
4 'When I look at your country, with its boundless riches, and then 
look at the pale, tired faces of your women, I always think — 

'111 fares the land to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates and wives decay.' " 

Excess Impairs Health. When we look into the haggard faces of 
men and women; when we hear men complaining of weak back, pains 
and aches of body; when we see delicate, broken-down wives, with all 
the sweetness of joy squeezed out of their lives, note the fact that a 
very large part of this want of vitality is the result of excessive sexual 
indulgence. 

It is impossible to lay down any definite rule in these matters 
which shall govern all men and women. In general, we may say, 
first, no husband should force his wife to submit to him against her 
will, nor too urgently persuade her. Second, if any depression or 
debility or disturbance of his health is the result, it is a sign that he 
is overtasking himself. Third, complete cessation should be observed 
during the monthly sickness of his wife. This was commanded by 
Moses; a woman was then considered ceremonially ''unclean." In 
the light of modern civilization, we know it to be a physically unclean 
practice, a violation of sanitary rules. It is also a violation of physi- 
ological and hygienic rules. Fourth, during pregnancy and nursing 
periods, the conjugal relations should be limited to the lowest possible 
number. Some authors condemn them altogether at these times; but 
this perhaps is an extravagance. "They do no harm, provided that 
they neither on the one hand unduly excite the woman, nor on the 
other are repulsive to her, ' ' says Dr. Napheys. 

Keep Away from the Danger Line. We may add that there is 
some danger of provoking miscarriage, especially if the wife have 
previously suffered a miscarriage. If the act is indulged in too fre- 
quently during the nursing period, it may deteriorate the quality of the 
mother's milk to the detriment of the infant. Fifth, after a natural 
confinement, there should be a rest for the wife of at least two full 
months before the marital relations are resumed. But should she or 



WHAT A YOUNG MARRIED MAN SHOULD KNOW. 307 

the child be wanting in vitality, it would be wiser to defer the matter 
till perfect health is established. Sixth, during and after the change 
of life, it is also important to observe the wife's condition and be gov- 
erned thereby. 

In response to an advertisement for a coachman, several candi- 
dates appeared. Each was requested to state how near he could drive 
to the edge of a precipice without falling over it. All but one 
attempted to explain their skill as a coachman by indicating how 
closely he could approach the edge without going over. Pat, the last 
one, made no attempt in that line, but frankly stated that he should 
keep as far away as possible from the precipice. He was the coach- 
man sought for. Most married men are anxious to know how near 
the line of excess they can go without falling into dissipation with 
its resultant evils. Pat's philosophy is as good in this case as in the 
other. Keep as far away from the danger line as possible. 

Dr. Lyman B. Sperry, in Husband and Wife, divides women into 
three general classes, and suggests that the numbers in each class will 
not be very far from equal. First, "those who are naturally as 
amorous and responsive in sexual passion as the average man." 
Second, "those who, while less passionate than men, still have posi- 
tive desire for, and take actual pleasure in, sexual congress, especially 
just preceding menstruation and immediately following its periodical 
cessation." Third, "those who experience no physical passion or 
pleasurable sexual sensation. ' ' He also throws in a truthful sugges- 
tion that neither class has superior virtues to the other two. 

Natural propensities are not virtues; our passions, or want of them, 
may make it more or less difficult to live a virtuous life; but the virtue 
lies in the governing or subduing of those passions. These facts 
should lead the young husband to be scrupulously careful to study the 
sexual character of her whom he has chosen to be his life partner. 
If both have strong sexual natures, there is great danger that these 
may lead to excess with all the evils that follow in its train. 

If the young wife apparently belongs to the third class mentioned 
above, a careful and judicious cultivation of the sexual relation may 
result in placing her in the second class. Let it be clearly understood 
that sexual passion is comparatively strong in all healthy, well-devel- 
oped men, and needs no further development. It is for such husbands 



308 SOCIAL PURITY. 

to note carefully the physical condition of their wives and to abide 
by all reasonable demands or wishes on their part. We say ' 'reason- 
able demands or wishes," because some wives may be unreasonable 
in sexual matters. 

Dr. Sperry further says: 

Sexual Affinity. "It makes a great difference who or what the 
man is, magnetically \ whether the woman's passions be easily aroused. 
Is there an affinity between them? Is he her real lover \ her first 
choice? — or is the union one of convenience, policy or animal lust? 
A woman who feels nothing but sexual apathy, or even repulsion, in 
the presence of one man, may easily be attracted to another and 
become sexually excited simply by his presence. There certainly is 
an obscure influence which, for the lack of a better name and more 
knowledge, is often called 'sexual affinity, or animal magnetism.' Its 
nature is not well understood; it seems to be largely physical, though 
probably it is partly mental. It certainly is a powerful factor in 
determining whether a marriage shall be a joyful union or a sad misfit. 

"Environment, occupation and association have much to do in 
determining sexual desires and experiences. A wife of good sense is 
quite apt in due time to become practically about what her husband 
appreciates in the matter of sexual activity and responsiveness, pro- 
vided the husband be a man of intelligence and conscience, and makes 
only healthful and reasonable demands." 

Note in this connection that the demands of the husband must also 
be within the bounds of reason and healthfulness. Also, what would 
be dissipation, disease, death to one, would be vigorous health to 
another. To a strong, muscular man working in the open air, indul- 
gence once a week might bring no evil results; while once 
a month would be beyond the line of prudence for another not 
vigorous in health. The same holds good for both parties to the act. 

A Sensible Suggestion. Dr. Ellis puts it in the following lan- 
guage: "One party may be injured by a frequency which would not 
harm the other; in such cases the duty of restraint is manifest, for in 
no instance has one a right to injure the other for the sake of selfish 
gratification. But a suggestion to the young may not be amiss. Let 
no young man who is aware of having this propensity strong, ever 
marry a small-waisted, pale-faced, delicate woman, who is not accus- 



WHAT A YOUNG MARRIED MAN SHOULD KNOW. 309 

tomed to active labor or exercise, unless he has confidence that he can 
and is willing to restrain this passion to the extent that the welfare 
and health of his wife may require, even if it be total abstinence; for 
an amount of indulgence which would be perfectly harmless to a 
strong, well-formed, robust, active woman may, with a small-waisted, 
delicate woman, whose bowels are pressed down upon the uterus and 
bladder, pressing them out of place, cause serious disease of the latter 
organs, and a train of symptoms which will make both husband and 
wife wretched, hurry the latter to a premature grave, and leave the 
former with the painful consciousness that his sensuality has caused 
the death of her he has promised to love and protect. 

"There is no gratification which draws so much upon the vitality 
of either man or woman as this, and the delicate man or woman has 
little to spare in this direction. Those of strong propensities and 
robust frames may well beware, then, how they unite with the delicate 
of the opposite sex, unless they are willing cheerfully to restrain their 
passions, and indulge rarely, if at all." 

Dr. Elliot, in the discussion of this topic, says: "If half the women 
suffer disease and disorders from too frequent and improper inter- 
course, from the same cause — because their energies and life-force are 
sapped out — half the men fail in life, and can not attain the highest 
of that to which their ability is capable." 

The seminal fluid is a wonderful invigorator, and all physiologists 
agree that in the state of continence, to a certain extent, the whole 
organism is impressed with an extreme tension and vigor. 

Marital Excess. Rev. Henry Varley, in his great lecture in Exeter 
Hall, London, says: "Doubtless one cause of the unhappiness which 
exists in many homes arises from marital excesses. Certainly no act is 
more capable of exaggeration and abuse. In proportion to its fre- 
quency is the weakening of the energies of mind and body. It is a 
fire which consumes, a fever-heat which parches the whole being. 
The common expression in relation to this act, 'A man spends him- 
self,' is emphatically true. It is a scandalous proverb which is often 
used concerning married people who die; it is said, 'She killed him,' 
or 'He killed her.' The worst of it, in many cases, is that it is true. 
These excesses slay numbers of men and women, and that at the very 
time when they should be in the prime of life. The effects of excess 



310 SOCIAL PURITY. 

in this act are more injurious to the whole man than the sin of intem- 
perance. 

"Now it is quite possible for a man to give his strength to his wife 
and exhaust her strength by doing so. Young married women who 
develop nervous prostration and debility are often suffering from 
excesses for which the marriage relationship affords opportunity, but 
for which it was never designed. In many cases where weakness now 
exists, that weakness is gradually disappearing if great moderation in 
this act is vigilantly maintained. Women of refined physical and 
mental constitutions can not stand this exhaustion. Those who have 
subdued this passion know right well how much stronger they are, 
and how much purer the love becomes between the husband and wife. 

''Experience shows that even where the law of God has instituted 
the legitimate use of these functions, that is, in the marriage state, 
both as the expression of affection and in order to the procreation of 
children, great care is needed lest an act lawful and blest in itself 
should become the cause of physical weakness, injury and sorrow. 
Many things in themselves lawful are not expedient, and certainly it 
can neither be expedient nor lawful to impair the health and strength 
of either husband or wife. This relationship is designed mainly for 
mutual companionship, friendship, sympathy, affection and home. 

"To every husband let me add, if you desire to retain robustness 
of physical manhood and to return home fresh and bright after the 
work and business of the day, mind that you keep this animal passion 
in subjection. If you wish to see your wife retain to natural age the 
cheerful step and buoyant animation which throws its welcome glow 
around the home, take care that you do not exhaust her strength by 
the wretched impulse of undisciplined animal desire. If the bloom 
of maiden freshness is to be retained, and nervous force, with its man- 
ifold worth and uses, hold sway, so that mother and children be 
healthy and practically independent of the medical man, see to it that 
this true philosophy of strength be courageously and faithfully main- 
tained. . . . 

"Many married people exhaust themselves by marital excesses; 
they become irritable, liable to cold, to rheumatic affections and 
nervous depression. They find themselves weary when they rise in 
the morning. Unfitted for close application to business, they become 



WHAT A YOUNG MARRIED MAN SHOULD KNOW. 311 

dilatory and careless, often lapsing into entire lack of energy, and not 
seldom into the love of intoxicating stimulants. 

"Numbers of husbands and wives entering upon these experiences 
lose the charm of health, the cheerfulness of life and converse. 
Home duties become irksome to the wife; the brightness, vivacity and 
the bloom natural to her earlier years decline; she is spoken of as 
highly nervous, poorly and weak, when the whole truth is that she is 
suffering from physical exhaustion which she can not bear. Her 
features become angular, her hair prematurely gray, she rapidly settles 
down into the nervous invalid, constantly needing medical aid and, if 
possible, change of air." 

All this is the more sad because multitudes of cases as bad as those 
pictured by Mr. Varley are absolutely ignorant of the real cause of 
the decline of their physical and mental vitality. 

A timid physician may hint at the real trouble, or a braver one 
may bluntly reveal the cause, but few men like to acknowledge that 
they are given to excess. While they may have a vague idea that 
sexual excess may be the real cause of their want of vitality, the irk- 
someness of self-restraint causes them to turn a deaf ear to the voice 
of warning. It is our hope to startle the reader so vigorously that 
there will be no more dallying with this great evil of sexual dissipation. 

The careful observer sees many illustrations of the effect of this 
evil in all the walks of life. It is as easily read on the countenance 
of its victims as is the dissipation of intemperance. Of course, in 
some cases, we may misjudge. As the physician would say, we fail 
to make a correct diagnosis of the case. But we need not trouble 
ourselves about others. Let us be sure that we read our own symp- 
toms aright and act accordingly. If we are to enjoy the good things 
of this grand old world, we must obey nature's laws, as she is merci- 
less in her exactions; we must pay for all violations without favor. 
We can not cheat her one iota. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

CONFIDENTIAL CHAT WITH HUSBAND AND WIFE. 

The Sexual Embrace. There are three general views on this 
subject: 

First. That which claims that such intercourse is necessary to 
man, but not to woman. 

Second. That which considers sexual intercourse a love act, 
intended for the mutual enjoyment of both parties, and not necessarily 
and exclusively an act of procreation. 

Third. That which teaches that there should never be sexual 
intercourse unless for procreation, pure and simple. 

The first theory leads logically to either masturbation or prostitu- 
tion, or some other abominable practice. But we have shown under 
another heading that the theory of the necessary ejection of the vital 
fluid is not correct. If the semen be permitted to be absorbed by the 
lymphatics and sent coursing throughout the system, it becomes the 
source of greater intellectual powers and manly vigor. The first 
theory, carried to its legitimate conclusion in the marriage relation, 
leads to the humiliation and prostitution of the wife, in order to meet 
the supposed demands of the husband's nature. 

A truthful but old saying is, "One-half the world does not know 
how the other half lives." The relations of husband and wife are 
secret in their nature, and can not be made public, but if they were, 
what unsightly revelations would be unfolded! If many wives could 
properly let the world know to what degradation they are compelled 
to submit, a wild protest would compel their husbands to hide them- 
selves, and "call upon the rocks to fall upon them to hide them from 
the wrath of their fellow men." 

Wife and Husband Egual Rights Sexually. Many an otherwise 
honorable man has subjected the wife he solemnly promised to love 
and cherish to gross indignities through the want of proper consider- 
ation and through false ideas and teachings in regard to this subject. 
Both husband and wife have rights in the marital relation, and justice 

312 



CONFIDENTIAL CHAT WITH HUSBAND AND WIFE. 318 

says they should be equal. True love also says the same thing, and 
practices what it declares. The husband should be reasonable in his 
requests; the wife should as readily grant his requests if they be rea- 
sonable. He should wait with patience until she is in proper condi- 
tion to meet the marital obligation; she should not be unreasonable in 
her delay. 

A failure to comply with this conjugal law may ultimately result 
in the loss of love and respect on the part of wife or husband, or both. 
The husband should not make his wife his harlot; neither should the 
wife, through her want of love, sympathy and appreciation of the 
marital act, send him off to seek the harlot for what he fails to get at 
home. 

Enjoyment Must be Mutual. The second idea, that the sexual 
relation is essentially a love act, leads us to conclude that the enjoy- 
ment must be mutual. Love is reciprocal, and a love act must also 
be reciprocal. If either party is not prepared, is not in a proper 
physical, mental or companionable state for such a pleasure, then there 
should be delay until such time as both are prepared to give and 
receive enjoyment. Naturally, this requires self-control; but life, and 
particularly married life, is not worth much unless both parties to it 
practice self-denial. In fact, the happiest marriages keep up a con- 
tinual "bill of compromise." 

Self-control and Happiness. The want of self-control leads to dis- 
sipation, and the mere word brings to our minds abhorrent thoughts. 
Three great opportunities for self-control are placed in the way of 
every one: first, eating; second, the use of narcotics and alcoholic 
beverages, and third, sexual intercourse. The first tends to much 
suffering and disease; the second, intemperance, as it is usually called, 
brings in its train not only bodily disease, but mental and moral 
degeneracy, poverty and crime; the third, the sexual passion, uncon- 
trolled, allures to harlotry, to physical diseases of the most shameful 
and repulsive nature, and to the lowest moral degeneration. 

Gluttony, drunkenness and harlotry are born of our lower natures. 
Each has its germ of life in the want of self-control, the lack of will- 
power. A man may never step over the bounds of seeming propriety, 
sexually, and yet be guilty of dissipation by using his wife as the 
instrument for satisfying his uncontrolled sexual appetite. The world 



314 SOCIAL PURITY. 

may not, probably will never know of his excessive indulgence in 
this matter, but God and nature do. He can deceive neither. Some- 
where, sometime, he must take the consequence. God may be merciful, 
but nature is lacking in that quality and demands payment, even to 
the third and fourth generation, of those who have violated her laws. 

In regard to the second proposition, the question naturally arises, 
if it be purely a love act, with no wish or desire at that particular time 
for procreation, how can it be accomplished? "Aye, there's the rub!" 
All forms of mechanical contrivances are pronounced untrustworthy 
and many actually harmful. Chemicals, washings and the like are 
all put in the same category by competent authorities. Positively, the 
only absolutely safe method is total abstinence. 

Most women are, for one or two weeks in each lunar month, sterile. 
Of course, at this period there is no danger of conception, but the 
difficulty in this case is that there is no absolute certainty of deter- 
mining the fact or the exact duration of this sterile period. There is 
much diversity among women, and also in individual women in differ- 
ent months, according to their state of health. Then again, the 
spermatozoa may remain alive and active for several days, ready to 
meet the ovum should it appear. So it is very difficult to know just 
when to trust to this natural period of sterility. 

If a Love Act, Must be Mutually Agreeable. Again, if this be a 
love act, it should be mutually agreeable. The wife is not, at the 
time of sterility, in the most responsive mood. In fact, it is the time 
when the sexual act is the least agreeable to her; or, to put it in 
stronger terms, it is the time when such intercourse is most repulsive 
to her. We see by this that it is very difficult to cheat Nature. She 
will have her way, and if we succeed in cheating her in one way, she 
will have her revenge in another. 

Dr. Alice B. Stockham gives a method of sexual intercourse for 
married people which she claims satisfies all the conditions of the 
love act without physical or moral harm, and also without danger of 
procreation, should the wife so desire. We do not have much confi- 
dence in its success. While in many cases it may accomplish all that 
its advocates claim for it, we believe that in the larger number of 
cases it is impracticable and harmful. 

Dr. Sperry, after discussing the subject at some length, concludes 



CONFIDENTIAL CHAT WITH HUSBAND AND WIFE. 315 

as follows: "While feeling very reluctant to reject any theory which 
promises needed relief, I have been forced to the conclusion that, at 
least for a very large majority of mankind, 'Karezza' is practically 
valueless; indeed, it is a delusion and a snare. Doubtless there are a 
few cold-blooded, semi-sexed men and a considerable number of 
passionless women who could successfully adopt this practice. Per- 
haps a few old and sexually decayed men and women can employ it 
quite satisfactorily. . . . But after a careful investigation of the 
practical workings of the scheme, I am forced to the conclusion that 
average men and women, who possess fulness of sexual vigor, alert 
minds and live nerves, can not indulge in sexual connection and 
experience a satisfactory play of the affections without passing on to 
coition (motion), sexual spasm and discharge of semen. When 
starving men learn to hold pleasant and nutritious food in their 
mouths for an hour without swallowing it, then we may expect pas- 
sionate men and women to adopt 'Zugassent's Discovery' (Karezza) 
as a practical method of healthfully enjoying the mental and physical 
pleasures of sexual embrace. ' ' 

We believe Dr. Sperry is correct in his conclusions. We believe 
that the nerve tension and spinal congestion resulting from the action 
of the will-power necessary to restrain from the free and natural com- 
pletion of the act, after so powerful an excitement, can not but be 
injurious to the participants. Perhaps the reader's curiosity is aroused 
to know what "Karezza" is. It is, in a few words, sexual connection 
without coming to a climax. Its advocates are very enthusiastic in 
their opinions of its virtues. 

People practicing this method claim the highest possible enjoy- 
ment, with no loss of vitality, while they have perfect control of the 
fecundating power. The advocates of this plan claim not only 
physical pleasure and the expression of love between man and wife, 
but also a "spiritual exaltation" in the act of self-control. Doubtless 
there are homes to which this knowledge might come as a blessing. 

Another Theory. The third proposition, that there should be no 

sexual connection except where procreation is desired and expected, 

now claims our attention. The advocates of this theory teach that 

there are other uses for the procreative element than the generation 

of offspring — far better uses than its waste in momentary pleasure. 
21 



316 SOCIAL PURITY. 

"This element when retained in the system, the mental powers being 
properly directed, is in some way absorbed and diffused throughout 
the whole system, replacing waste matter and imparting a peculiar 
vivifying influence. It is taken up by the brain and may be coined 
into new thoughts — perhaps new inventions — grand conceptions of 
the true, the beautiful, the useful, or into fresh emotions of joy and 
impulses of kindness, and blessings to all around. It is a procreation 
on the mental and spiritual planes instead of the physical. It is just 
as really a part of the generative function as is the begetting of 
physical offspring." The foregoing is quoted from Dr. Alice B. 
Stockham's Tokology. 

This third theory is beyond the power of the great mass of man- 
kind to reach, and is therefore impracticable under ordinary condi- 
tions. 

Should Husband and Wife Occupy the Same Bed? Standard 
authorities on physiology and hygiene discuss this subject to some 
extent. In the light of hygiene, pure and simple, the arguments are 
decidedly in favor of the single bed. Unless the room is quite large, 
the effluvia from two bodies and the breath from two pairs of lungs 
will contaminate the air to an unhealthful condition. Then, again, 
if one be strong and the other feeble or diseased, there is danger to 
the health of the strong one, without a corresponding benefit to the 
weaker one. 

But one of the main reasons given why married people should not 
occupy the same bed, is, that the temptation to over-sexual indul- 
gence is too great. The close and constant contact of bodies naturally 
leads to excitement, and so requires a greater amount of will-power 
to overcome. 

The writer fully agrees with the hygienic idea of the case, but has 
some doubts as to the other subject in question. Without doubt in 
sleeping apart there is loss of that affection that should subsist between 
man and wife. Again, it is questionable whether the constant pres- 
ence of each in the same bed leads to greater temptation or not. In 
the early days of marriage it may be so, but as time passes, the condi- 
tions become so constant, and each becomes so accustomed to the 
presence of the other, that the contact ceases to be a temptation. 

In the continual separation of husband and wife there is danger 



CONFIDENTIAL CHAT WITH HUSBAND AND WIFE. 317 

that the bond of union may be loosened, and possibly broken. We 
all know it to be a law of our being that we love and care for those 
most whose presence is most familiar to us. Separation generates 
coldness, if it does not breed distrust or indifference. This is a gen- 
eral law, as applicable in friendship as in love; but the law has a 
double force in the case of married people. 

Cleanliness of Person. Dr. Galopin whimsically remarks that 
"Love begins at the nose," and we are inclined to think he may be 
more than half right. Married people, who would be married lovers 
to the end, should be scrupulously particular about the cleanliness of 
their bodies. An unpleasant odor always manifests itself about the 
person of those who neglect the bath. Bad smells lead to aversion. 
Persons whose feet perspire unpleasantly, or whose bodily exhalation 
is offensive, are extremely disagreeable companions, especially when 
sleeping in the same bed with another. If the husband wishes to be 
held in pleasurable esteem by a sensitive and delicate wife, or the 
wife hopes to retain the affection of a refined husband, each must 
avoid offending the olfactory nerves of the other. 

Think, young husband, before you present yourself with those ill- 
smelling feet into the presence of the bridal chamber, lest you shock 
and disgust her whom you wish to please. Bathing the feet frequently 
and wearing seven pairs of socks a week, a pair for each day, will 
remedy this evil. 

Then again, does the tobacco user know or realize how offensive 
his breath may be to the sensitive olfactory nerves that accompany 
true refinement? Did you ever smell a man steeped with alcohol, 
every pore of his body sending out a foul stench of decay? Then let 
the young husband consider how repulsive he becomes in the presence 
of his beloved, if he be accompanied by any one, or all, of these 
repelling and abominable odors. 

Now a word to the wife. At the time of the monthly periods, 
unless the body is kept scrupulously clean, and the underclothing fre- 
quently changed, most women are accompanied by an unpleasant odor 
peculiar to their condition at the time. Catarrhal difficulties also 
become at times extremely offensive. Much pains should be taken in 
both of these cases, as well as in others not mentioned, to avoid, as 
far as possible, giving offense. 



PART FOUR. 



Venereal Diseases 

Criminal Abortion 

Size of Families 

Heating and Ventilation 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

VENEREAL DISEASES. 

The Four Periods in Man's Life. Man's allotted age of three- 
score years and ten may be divided, so far as his sexual functions are 
concerned, into four periods, based on the number seven, or its mul- 
tiple: From birth to puberty, fourteen years, childhood, or the 
neutral period; from fourteen to twenty-one, seven years, adolescence, 
or the period of development of the sexual functions; from twenty- 
one to forty-nine, twenty-eight years, the period of man's greatest 
virility, or the child-bearing period in woman; from forty-nine to 
seventy, twenty-one years, decline in man's virile powers, or the 
barren period in woman. Nature, of course, is not so exact in her 
division of time as indicated above, but these divisions are approxi- 
mately correct for both sexes. v?-^^V;' 

The second period ranges from eleven years of age to twenty-three, 
according to the heredity of the individual. Climate also has some- 
thing to do in the matter; puberty comes earlier in warm than in cold 
climates. Woman also attains her full sexual powers two or three 
years earlier than does her brother. In the fourth period, woman's 
sterile period, as a rule, comes somewhat earlier than forty-nine years, 
though many women bear children after that age. In the fourth or 
last period, there is a compensation to man, in the fact that the 
battle for purity has been largely fought, and the mind, being thus 
clarified, ought to be at its best, and in many cases is so. The virile 
age (twenty-one to forty-nine) is the period of activity; the follow- 
ing age is one of meditation and intellectual vigor — that is, it should 
be so, if his vital forces have not been sapped by excesses. In the 
clerical profession we hear about the "dead line at fifty." By physi- 
ological and psychological laws man should then be at his best intel- 
lectually. 

Marriage, or, at least, child-bearing, should not occur before the 
third period, because previous to that time the sexual powers are 
not fully developed. To use the sexual powers during adolescence 
tends to weaker! the manhood that should follow. This is the most 

319 



320 SOCIAL PURITY. 

critical period in the boy's life. Professor Fowler says: ''If he is 
preserved pure, the new force within him tends to develop all his 
vital energies and mental powers in a high degree. This sexual 
power pervades his whole being; new feelings, new aspirations develop 
as if called forth by magic. The vital fluid which provides the 
materials for the manufacture of the life-fluid, not being required for 
this purpose, goes to strengthen the whole organism, bones, muscles, 
ligaments, brain and nerves — in short, every fiber of his being." 

Spermatorrhea is Not a Disease, but it does, doubtless, lead to 
very serious results, and the subject should be discussed in a book of 
this kind. "The condition or ailment which we characterize as sper- 
matorrhea is a state of enervation. ... In a greater number of indi- 
viduals, both young and adult, an enervated state of body exists, 
which the profession, as well as patients, characterize by the some- 
what vague term spermatorrhea, a complaint which is as peculiar and 
as certainly to be distinguished by its own symptoms as fever, or any 
other general disease." These are the words of Dr. Acton, in Repro- 
ductive Organs. 

From Dr. Acton's definition above, it would seem to be a nervous 
condition resulting from involuntary emissions. Now these may 
occur and, as a rule, do occur with men in the most vigorous health, 
under certain conditions. It becomes a disease only when too fre- 
quent, and is followed by serious nervous disorders. Because of the 
vagueness in the term, misapprehension arises in the mind of many. 

An intelligent physician once told the writer that men generally, 
and young men particularly, were extremely sensitive over any sup- 
posed difficulty with their sexual organs, the tendency being to mag- 
nify any supposed symptoms of disease. Doubtless many have the 
best of reasons for being watchful and sensitive, but not so the ordi- 
nary sexually clean man. This sensitiveness, combined with the 
vagueness concerning spermatorrhea, makes men easy victims of the 
charlatan. The term spermatorrhea is always employed by unprin- 
cipled quacks as a means of imposing upon the inexperienced. Any 
ailment which their unfortunate victims can be made to believe is 
spermatorrhea is so called. Through fear and humiliation, many 
innocent patients become ready victims of these charlatons who extort 
large fees as payment for their services. 



VENEREAL DISEASES. 321 

Causes of Spermatorrhea. Some of the causes of spermatorrhea 
are: (i) hard study, (2) masturbation, (3) venereal excesses, (4) 
nervous difficulties, (5) involuntary nocturnal emissions, (6) marital 
excesses. 

Should any man have doubts about this matter, he should consult 
an intelligent, upright physician. He may be able, if necessary, to give 
medical or surgical aid; but the chances are that the remedy lies with 
the patient himself. Perfect physical, intellectual and moral conti- 
nence is essential, even with a physician's prescription. 

The question might arise in the mind of the patient as to what is 
excessive loss. What would be excessive for one, amounting to sper- 
matorrhea, may be a sign of health in another. It is best to settle 
the doubt by consulting a physician. 

It is now generally conceded by medical men that the life-fluid is 
secreted at all times in health; that the lymphatics take it up and send 
it back into the system, and it thus becomes the source of much vital 
force in man. This is assumed to be the case where the secretions are 
not too abundant. These secretions are much more abundant in the 
same person at different times; and, also, one man will secrete much 
more than another. Where the secretions are too abundant the 
lymphatics find difficulty in absorbing all of it, and in relieving the 
distended vessels. In a man who is able to keep his mind pure and 
away from sexual thoughts, nature can take care of all the life-fluid 
that may be secreted without loss through the sexual organs. But 
sexual thoughts will intrude themselves upon the attention of the most 
chaste man. Any form of sexual excitement will cause greater accumu- 
lation of the male principle, which nature must in some way take care 
of. Nature's method is sometimes classed as spermatorrhea, or 
seminal weakness. 

If great lassitude, spinal weakness, headache and other nervous 
disorders follow as a result, there is something wrong, and a physician 
should be consulted. 

We attempt no medical advice in this book, but we suggest 
hygienic measures. Whether the emissions be from healthful, vigor- 
ous nature, or from seminal weakness, the following suggestions are 
valuable. 

Treatment. In all cases of seminal weakness certain hygienic and 



322 SOCIAL PURITY. 

moral rules must be observed. The diet should be nutritious and 
digestible, the evening meal in particular being light and dry, and all 
stimulating articles of food, as well as spirituous and malt liquors 
should be avoided. 

Before retiring, the bladder is to be thoroughly emptied, and the 
habit of sleeping on the side upon a hair mattress without much cov- 
ering should be cultivated. Horseback riding and driving over rough 
roads should be prohibited. 

. "Everything calculated to excite sexual thoughts and desires should 
be scrupulously avoided. With this end in view, he should keep the 
mind and body pleasantly occupied; and if he happens to belong to 
the class of society that has nothing to do, and if he is still robust and 
vigorous, he should have recourse to gymnastic exercise, or to the 
close study of any subject which he may most fancy. If, on the other 
hand, there are marked signs of spinal exhaustion, mental and phys- 
ical, moderation should be enjoined." The foregoing instructions 
are taken from Dr. F. R. Sturgis' book. 

We might add: i. Indulge in no lascivious thoughts; keep the 
two great doors to the mind — the eye and ear — shut to suggestions of 
a sexual nature. 2. Use a non-stimulating diet, as fruits, vegetables, 
grains and milk. Meats, pepper, mustard, spices and such stimulat- 
ing diet should be avoided. 3. Drink no tea, coffee, beer, wine nor 
any other narcotic beverage. 4. Sleep all you need, but avoid lying 
on the back while sleeping. 5. Bathe often, and especially keep the 
parts clean. 6. Seek good, pure society. 7. Keep the mind off all 
sexual matters. 

Millions Tainted. Says the Medical Standard: ' ' No diseases are 
more common than those growing out of illicit intercourse between 
the sexes; there are none more insidious and pestilential. The num- 
ber suffering from these diseases can not be accurately determined, 
though it is estimated that five millions of people in this country are, 
or have been, tainted with syphilis; the number of these affected with 
gonorrhea is undoubtedly much greater than this. And yet this sub- 
ject receives comparatively little attention as compared with its 
far-reaching consequences. 

"No statistics can measure the destructiveness of syphilis or gon- 
orrhea; death-rates indicate but a fraction of their results, but every 



VENEREAL DISEASES. 323 

medical man knows the terrible consequences that too often follow 
them. The horrible mutilation and disfigurement of neglected syphilis 
is not less dreadful than the later outcroppings of the disease after 
the interval of hope and forgetfulness, and less disastrous than its 
perpetuation in the lives of another generation. 

"Gonorrhea, often considered a proper subject for jest and ridicule, 
fills our institutions of the blind with its victims, and brings to the oper- 
ating table of the gynecologist the largest proportion of his patients, 
the innocent sufferers from the indiscretion and ignorance of youth. 

A Menace to Our Race. "The effects of this festering mass of 
disease upon the future welfare of our race is more than a subject of 
speculation. Its destructiveness has been observed in the past, and 
there is reason to believe that it is even now threatening that enor- 
mous vitality which has given supremacy to the Anglo-Saxon people. 
. . . This subject is 'taboo' in good society, only to be jested at 
over the wine, or hinted at, with bated breath, over the teacups. 

"Venereal diseases are insidious. They are born in the night and 
go through life hidden. . . . The sufferer from 'private disease' is 
usually to outward appearances sound of body, though he may be 
physically and morally rotten." 

Enlighten the Young Man. In connection with this same subject, 
the Charlotte Medical Journal says: "I believe that much can be done 
to relieve this condition by educating the young man, the boy, to a full 
understanding of a life, every moment of which may be one of suffer- 
ing from the various phases of one or the other of these diseases, as a 
result of one-half hour of so-called pleasure. Teach them the price 
they have to pay. Throw away all false modesty. Talk to them 
plainly. Picture to them in the most forcible language at your com- 
mand the horrors of it. The father and the physician should teach it. 
The minister and the teacher should be very willing assistants. It 
should be taught in our colleges. Teach it all the time during adoles- 
cence." 

The word venereal is from a Latin word referring to Venus, the 
goddess of love, the patroness of lust. Venereal diseases refer to 
those diseases which have their origin in indiscriminate sexual inter- 
course. Venereal diseases may be placed in three classes: gonorrhea, 
chancroid and syphilis. 



324 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Gonorrhea has been known in all ages. The Greeks and Romans 
refer to it. The first half of the fifteenth chapter of Leviticus has 
reference to this disease. Some people, even intelligent people, make 
light of this disease, saying that they think no more of having gon- 
orrhea than of having a severe cold or a severe attack of catarrh. 
But that is one of the devil's devices to cover up the dreadful results 
of the disease. Let us investigate; let us see what those who are 
capable of speaking on this subject say about it. The disease is 
now known to be the result of a vegetable microbe, known as a "gon- 
ococcus, " singular, or "gonococci," plural. 

Dr. J. F. Scott, in his Sexual Instinct, says in regard to gonorrhea: 
"The well-informed physician knows that its consequences may be 
most disastrous to the health and happiness of the patient himself, 
even dangerous to life, and that it may bring into his home circle the 
doom of a partial or complete sterility, as well as the gloom of blind- 
ness, especially to his offspring. The germs of the disease usually 
invade the tissues of the genital zone, and may lie dormant in them 
for long periods of time, to revive into activity after any sexual 
excess, or debauch, or strain, or impairment of vitality of the tissues 
affected. 

Treacherous and Baneful. "This serious ailment may remain 
slumbering for years, after an apparent cure, causing few or no symp- 
toms which are appreciable to the infected sufferer, and then break 
out into a number of sub-acute attacks which are but recurrences of 
the original one. ... In the female its effects are most horrible and 
appalling, leading, as in the male, to severe bladder and kidney 
inflammation. ' ' 

From these statements it would seem that these are no conditions 
for jokes. Ask the multiplied thousands of innocent persons who 
have gone through life blind from birth caused by gonorrhea in their 
parents; ask the innocent, unsuspecting wives whose wedded lives 
have been one of suffering from gonorrhea caught from their diseased 
husbands; ask the thousands of sufferers themselves, if there is any 
material from which jokes can be manufactured. 

But this is not all the authorities at hand. We could fill this book 
with evidence of the dreadful effects of this disease. Here are a few 
more witnesses: 



VENEREAL DISEASES. 325 

Dr. Taylor says: "It is, taken as a whole, one of the most formid- 
able and far-reaching infections by which the human race is attacked. ' ' 

Dr. F. C. Valentine says: "Aside from the many complications 
and consequences which it may bring to the persons affected, it can 
make the patient hopelessly blind in twenty-four hours. These facts 
alone, among a multitude of others equally alarming which affect the 
patient's self-love, being duly impressed upon his mind, we may go a 
step farther. A disappearance of all external evidence of the disease 
by no means makes the ex-patient unable to cause his wife's death. 
Lurking in the glands of his urethra may be gonococci. In the sexual 
relation these murderous bacteria are wholly or partially emptied 
out. Enough of them may be projected to pass to the regions where 
a future human being should be given life, and the prospective mother 
then has within her the fungus of destruction." 

"Cases may drag on for one or more, and even for five, ten and 
twenty years," says Dr. Taylor, "without giving any indication of 
lurking trouble. " 

Ex-Gonorrhea Patient. Says Dr. Scott: "For the ex-gonorrheal 
patient who is contemplating marriage, and for the married man who 
has broken the pledge of fidelity and constancy implied in his solemn 
marriage vow and has become infected, it is exceedingly important 
that they shall distinctly understand that they are, in all seriousness, 
venomous and poisonous and deadly to whatever woman they 
approach in the sexual relation, until pronounced safe by a skilled 
specialist, and that many of them never can be cured. Death does 
not follow in their path at once, but countless numbers of innocent 
women pay for their husbands' dirty and illegitimate practices with 
their shipwrecked health and life. Unlike the cobra's bite,, the 
immediate results of infection are not usually seen to be dangerous to 
life; but gonorrhea is characterized often by an infinitely long period 
of convalescence and quiescence, so that wives and children will 
suffer terrible consequences, even years afterward, unless the patient 
be no longer a gonococcus-bearing animal." 

A famous German physician, a specialist in the diseases of women, 
makes this bold statement: "About ninety per cent, of sterile women 
are married to husbands who have suffered from gonorrhea either 
previous to or during married life." We dare not make such a 



SOCIAL PURITY. 

statement as the above; we do not know; ninety percent, is, perhaps, 
too large; no one knows the per cent, positively. But if it anywhere 
approaches the truth, the statement is a fearful one. 

A Case Cited. Dr. Valentine says: "A man contracts gonorrhea. 
After a time ... his physician dismisses him as completely cured. 
Five, ten or more years later, he has almost, if not entirely, dropped 
from his mind this, with other disagreeable recollections. He mar- 
ries a healthy, strong girl. The young wife soon begins to fade. . . . 
It is found necessary to seek professional advice. Cystic ovaries and 
diseased tubes . . . are discovered. An operation, perilous to life, 
must be performed to save her. If she survive, she will no longer be a 
woman, for she can not become a mother. . . . Remember that this 
wreck, but a few short months ago a vigorous, healthy woman, was 
as chaste as ice, as pure as snow. Remember, too, that her husband 
presented no sensory evidence of the disease that killed his cherished 
wife. Killed — the word is advisedly employed — for, though she live, 
she is worse than dead; she is not only unsexed, but also physically 
destroyed. ' ' 

Illicit Pleasure Always Dangerous. Dr. H. J. Garrigues says: 
"If, then, the young man decides to avail himself of the offers of those 
women who sell their favors, he exposes himself to infection with 
syphilis and gonorrhea, both of which may be communicated to an 
innocent woman who has the misfortune to marry him. Syphilis 
may cause abortions or give rise to the birth of a syphilitic child; 
gonorrhea leads oftener to the deplorable condition we have described 
above, and is a common cause of blindness in the new-born child, if 
it does not entail sterility. 

"A man may be willing to run the risk of being infected himself, 
but he has not the right to draw his future wife and his offspring into 
his own calamity, so much less so as their condition caused by his 
recklessness is infinitely worse than his own. Many a young man is 
not only indifferent to, but often proud of having acquired a disease 
which sometimes does not inconvenience him more than a cold in his 
head, and yet this slight disease, which even has a pet name, may cost 
his future wife her life, and result in lifelong blindness to his chil- 
dren." 

The statistics of the German empire for 1894 show that of the 



VENEREAL DISEASES. 327 

women who died of uterine or ovarian diseases, eighty per cent, were 
killed by gonorrhea; also, that of all the children born blind, eighty 
per cent, were caused by gonorrhea. 

Gonorrhea attacks the mucous membranes, not only of the urethra, 
but at any sensitive part, as the eye. A woman affected with this 
disease, in giving birth to a child, poisons the child's eyes at birth. 
This is the reason so many children are made blind by diseased 
women. 

A remedy has been found by which, if applied to the eyes at birth 
immediately, most are now saved from blindness. The poison is dan- 
gerous at all times, as it may cause blindness at any age. It may 
be transmitted to the eyes by handkerchiefs, towels and the like. 

Of course, not all cases of gonorrhea are so harmful as in the 
instances given; neither do all bullets shot in a battle take deadly 
effect; but few people care to expose themselves to the whistling bul- 
lets. It is only through patriotism or the love of glory that men put 
themselves voluntarily in the storm of battle. But let it be known to 
all men that gonorrhea is always a shame and a disgrace, and many 
times it is blindness or death. 

We give no symptoms, nor do we suggest any remedies. At the 
first signs of anything wrong, seek the advice of a competent, honest 
physician. None of the venereal diseases should be left to run their 
course without seeking medical advice and aid. It is usually expensive 
advice, but much cheaper in the long run. Do not delay in seeking 
skilled treatment. 

Gonorrheal Rheumatism. There is a disease known to medical 
men as gonorrheal rheumatism. In reply to a question from the 
writer, a physician of extended experience said: "The name of those 
who suffer from gonorrheal rheumatism is legion." When it is 
further known that thousands of cases of rheumatism have come under 
the care of this physician during the last five years, while head phy- 
sician of an institution largely devoted to rheumatics, the reader will 
catch a glimpse of the magnitude of gonorrheal troubles. 

A young man engaged to a bright young woman was so unwise as 
to place himself where he caught the disease, which soon took the 
form of gonorrheal rheumatism. The lady, having her suspicions 
aroused, investigated the matter as best she could, and found enough 



328 SOCIAL PURITY. 

of the facts to cause her to break the engagement. Happy was she 
to learn these facts before it was too late. The young man is still 
further paying the penalty of his folly by the loss of the use of his 
good right arm from the effects of his "rheumatism." 

Chancroid. Chancroid is known as "soft chancre" to distinguish 
it from the "hard chancre" of syphilis. Chancroid, unlike syphilis, 
is local, and never produces constitutional after-effects, and is not 
transmitted to posterity. While it may terminate fatally, it is not 
usually dangerous to life. It leaves tell-tale scars. One attack is no 
protection from another, as one may have chancroid many times. 
There has been some confusion in the mind about this disease. It 
has sometimes, heretofore, been classed as one form of syphilis; but 
the latest and best authorities now class them as two distinct 
diseases, though they have at first some outward resemblance to each 
other. 

Chancroid is always produced by the inoculation of virus from 
another chancroid. It is clearly a venereal disease, though it may be 
easily inoculated wherever the virus is applied to broken places in the 
skin, or on the mucous membrane. It may be transmitted by drinking- 
cups, towels, baths and the like. 

In external appearance the chancroid is much like the chancre of 
syphilis; but a physician easily distinguishes the difference between 
the two. The chancroid may be, and often is, a larger and more 
inflamed ulcer, but it does not permeate the whole system like 
syphilis, and readily yields to local treatment. On the other 
hand, before the chancre of syphilis makes its appearance at all, the 
virus has permeated the whole system; has become a constitutional 
disease. When the "bubo" and the chancroid are thoroughly healed, 
the consequences will vanish. But when the chancre of syphilis is 
healed, the dreadful results have only begun. 

History of Syphilis. There is a diversity of opinions as to the his- 
tory of the disease of syphilis. Gonorrhea can be traced to most 
ancient times; but not so with syphilis. Assuming that syphilis did 
exist in ancient times, it would seem that one form of leprosy was 
nothing more than syphilis. In fact, it is sometimes suggested that 
leprosy itself had its origin in this foul disease. 

Some believe that syphilis was taken to Europe from America by 



VENEREAL DISEASES. 329 

the sailors of Columbus. This supposition is, perhaps, not correct, 
yet there are circumstances that would suggest the idea. 

Irving, in his Life of Columbus, tells of the great mortality among 
the sailors as the result of venereal diseases caught through their 
lascivious conduct with the native women. 

But the most striking thing about this matter is that near 1500, so 
soon after the discovery of America, the disease spread all through 
Europe in a most virulent form. The English called it the French 
disease; the French put it off on the Italians, calling in the Neapol- 
itan disease; the Italians passed it on to Spain, calling it the 
Spanish disease. 

The cause of the rapid spread of the disease just at this time was 
the gathering of great armies from all parts of Europe. It was a very 
warlike period. 

Three Periods. Three clearly denned stages of syphilis are recog- 
nized — the primary, the secondary and the tertiary. 

The Primary Stage* At the time of infection some of the virus is 
planted at the place where the chancre will manifest itself. From 
ten to seventy days, with an average of about twenty-one days, after 
the infection, no signs of danger appear; this is known as the inocula- 
tion period. At the end of this period a sore appears; but it is not 
until about two weeks more that the typical signs of the true, hard 
chancre are positively manifest. Another period of apparent rest, 
lasting from forty to ninety days, with merely the inconvenience of a 
local sore, now comes to the patient. But during all this time the 
horrible disease is making its way throughout the system of the 
victim. 

The Secondary Stage. The patient suffers from headache, shoot- 
ing pains in the limbs and body, languor, falling out of the hair, sore 
throat, enlargement of lymphatic glands, eruptions of the skin and 
mucous surfaces, and specific milk-white patches upon the mucous 
membrane of the mouth. 

The Tertiary Stage comes on in cases not properly treated at the 
end of two years. The third, the most serious stage to the individual, 
may continue to the close of life. 

''Syphilis, in its later manifestations, is capable of infecting any or 

all of the tissues in the body; remotely it frequently causes death, or 
22 



330 SOCIAL PURITY. 

the most hideous distortions and malformations, insanity, paralysis, 
epilepsy, blindness, destruction of joints, etc." — Dr. J. F. Scott. 

Hereditary Syphilis. In hereditary syphilis the first stage does 
not appear. It manifests itself in the second or third forms, but 
usually not in well-defined stages. This dreaded disease may be 
transmitted by either parent or by both. 

According to one authority, one-third of all children of syphilitic 
parents are still-born, and of those born living, twenty-four per cent, 
die within the first six months of life. Another authority states, as 
learned in his own private practice, that more than two out of three 
hereditary syphilitic children died before, at or soon after birth. 

In hospital practice this same authority found that from syphilitic 
parents only one child out of seven or eight lived. Taking the world 
standard, the proportion of living children is about twenty-three per 
cent. 

Many years after all signs of syphilis have disappeared from the 
parents, this treacherous, loathsome disease may appear in their 
innocent offspring. 

Dr. J. F. Scott says: "Though long disputed, it is now pretty 
generally accepted that a healthy mother can be infected by a foetus 
which has been originated by the semen of a syphilitic father. In a 
large majority of instances the mother is infected with primary 
syphilis directly by the father; but after his chancre has healed he 
may have coitus with her without inoculating her, though his semen 
renders the fcetus syphilitic. In this event the mother may acquire 
the disease from the fcetus." He also says in regard to the child's 
inherited syphilitic disease: "Suffice it to say that failures in develop- 
ment, and the most hideous and shocking deformities, blindness, 
deafness, paralysis, epilepsy, impairment of mental powers, idiocy 
and a marked tendency to develop tubercular affections, are the rule." 

Rev. Henry Varley, in his lecture to three thousand men in Exeter 
Hall, London, gives the following sad case which came under his 
immediate observation: "I was called one evening to visit a young 
man reported to be dying. Entering a large room, I found lying in 
partial undress upon a bed, a fine, muscular fellow of about twenty- 
seven. 

"The moment he saw me, he started up, saying: 'I don't want to 



VENEREAL DISEASES. 331 

see you; I know who you are, and why you have come. My friends 
have told you that I am dying, and that I shall be dead before morn- 
ing. What nonsense!' he added. 'Do I look like a dying man?' 
And as though he would prove to me the utter unlikelihood of such a 
result, he walked with quick and vigorous tread round and round the 
room. I was startled, and at first could not comprehend the situation. 
A friend who was present then quietly took me aside, and informed 
me that two physicians had been there that afternoon, and given it as 
their opinion that he could not live through the night. But why? 
Had he in mistake taken poison, or was the hour of execution nigh 
at hand? No, neither of these; but he had been the companion of 
harlots, and some time before had contracted one of the most virulent 
forms of venereal diseases. This had now reached the throat, and 
was working its deadly issue. The air-passages were gradually swell- 
ing and rilling up, and suffocation must speedily result. In vain did I 
try to calm the agitated and bewildered man ; in vain did I endeavor 
to gain his attention to the blessed theme of the mercy of God. No, 
he would neither hear nor believe that he must die. Nevertheless, 
the solemn fact remains that, after some hours spent in paroxysms of 
excitement, alarm, rage and struggle, in the midst of which he kept on 
asserting that he would not die, suffocation did its brief, subtle and 
deadly work. At 2:30 a. m. of the following morning there lay upon 
the same bed, in the same room, the manly form of another victim to 
the awful number of the slain by lust." 

An Infected Family. A recently published medical journal gives 
an account of an infected family. The case is of a mother of four 
children, the oldest child being six years old. The mother and a 
four-year-old child first presented themselves at a clinic, both having 
mucous patches, the mother a syphilitic, the child with sores on differ- 
ent parts of its body. It was believed that the avenue of infection 
was a sore in the corner of the child's mouth, a trace of which 
remained. 

After a few weeks the mother returned, bringing this time her 
infant child of one year, presenting mucous patches. In three weeks 
more she brought a two-year-old daughter, and a couple of days later 
her oldest child. Both had symptoms characteristic of the preceding 
case. All but the oldest child responded well to medical treatment. 



332 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Nearly a year later the oldest child was again brought before the 
clinic, presenting the same picture in an aggravated form. 

Dr. Sylvanus Stall, in Self and Sex Series, relates the following 
circumstance: "An eminent professor in one of our largest medical 
colleges in this country, in one of the clinics, when examining and 
prescribing for persons who had skin diseases, and when a man with 
a syphilitic sore was before the class, said to his students: 'Gentle- 
men, / would not have that sore on my body for the entire continent of 
North America.'" We write his words in italics for the purpose of 
drawing attention to the awful condition resulting from that disease, 
which the eminent professor so graphically stated. 

Another physician, equally emphatic, relates how a young man 
who had contracted this vile disease, came to him for consultation and 
treatment. In order that he might understand the importance of 
taking his medicine regularly and faithfully for a period of at least 
two years, and in order that he might be induced to use proper pre- 
caution to prevent the transmission of the disease to others, either by 
unlawful or ordinary contact, the doctor was communicating to his 
patient the nature of his disease and some of the terrible conse- 
quences that might be expected, when the young man looked up into 
his face and said: "Well, doctor, if that is so, then I might as well 
be dead." "Yes," said the doctor, "so far as either you or the rest 
of the world are concerned, you might as well be dead. ' ' 

The Awful Result of One Sinful Act. A single act of indiscretion 
may cause lifelong agony and remorse. A prosperous merchant of 
respectable family connections was crossing the Atlantic in a steam- 
boat. Early one morning, as he was half-dressed, a handsome cham- 
bermaid was passing his state-room door; without much thought and 
yielding to a passing desire, which with a little effort he might have 
subdued, he threw out an arm, drew her in and committed the 
iniquitous act which later was to cost him his life. Fourteen years 
later a physician was hastily called to attend him. The victim was 
lying in the middle of his own parlor with his terror-stricken wife and 
children about him, witnesses of his awful agony, the result of the 
one act cited above. Syphilis seated in the periosteum was the cause 
of fourteen years of dreadful suffering brought about by one indiscreet 
and sinful act. 



VENEREAL DISEASES. 333 

Gonorrhea and syphilis both give out a yellowish matter, which is 
often left on sheets or other bed-clothing, or on chambers, or the 
seats of water-closets. If such matter touch a sore spot on another 
person, or come in contact with the slightest scratch, or mucous sur- 
face, as of the eyes, or nose, or mouth, the disease is as certainly 
imparted as smallpox would be if such a patient should come in con- 
tact with another; hence the care which intelligent and cultivated 
people take while traveling. Make it a rule never to sit on the seat 
of a water-closet so as to allow it to come in contact with the skin. 
Spread a paper over it by all means. If no paper is at hand, use your 
handkerchief and then burn it. 

All keepers of good hotels never put a guest in a bed whose sheets 
and pillow-cases have been used by another without washing. For 
the same and other reasons careful housekeepers change the bedding 
after a single night's use by even a guest of the family. 

Sometimes matter forms in the eyes of a syphilitic patient, and a 
handkerchief is used; that handkerchief can impart the disease to 
another through the eyes, or nose, or a chapped lip. 

Syphilis is a Contagious Disease, always communicated from one 
individual to another by direct or indirect means, or is transmitted by 
inheritance. As it is so highly contagious and so universally acknowl- 
edged as being an inherited disease, why should it not be put under 
legal restrictions? Smallpox, scarlet fever, diphtheria and similar 
diseases are prevented from spreading by legal care and restraint. 
Syphilis, because of its classification as a venereal disease, becomes a 
disgrace to the patient, and any one showing symptoms would, there- 
fore, feel a certain degree of humiliation were these symptoms gener- 
ally known. 

That it is a venereal disease is true, but many are innocent 
sufferers, through no fault of their own, and to these helpless, inno- 
cent ones the powerful hand of the law should provide proper protec- 
tion. 

Infection may take place in other ways than sexual congress, as we 
have intimated. The poison may also be conveyed by nursing, by 
vaccination, by tattooing, by glass-blowing and by household utensils, 
but the saddest, most numerous and most humiliating cases are those 
conveyed to the wife by an unfaithful husband. 



334 SOCIAL PURITY. 

It Maybe Contracted Innocently. Men occasionally contract 
syphilis innocently, in lawful wedlock, even from a virtuous wife who 
has acquired the disease by nursing syphilitic children, or in some 
other blameless manner. We say occasionally, advisedly. The facts 
are that wives are the greater sufferers from the sin of the husbands 
either before or after his marriage. 

A famous Paris physician found in his private practice that twenty- 
five per cent, of females under his care who had syphilis, had con- 
tracted it from their guilty husbands. 

Hereditary syphilis is another prolific source of suffering brought 
about by the sins of others. 

The death-rate of children born of syphilitic parents is very high, 
sometimes reaching seventy-five per cent. But more than that, innu- 
merable abortions are caused by this disease in the parent. 

In three families born of syphilitic parents, there was a total of 
twenty-two births. Of this number, there came but one healthy 
adult. Of thirteen who survived some years, eight were incapable of 
self-support from mental or physical defects, and the five remaining 
were weak, nervous and totally unfit for further reproduction of the 
race. These families belonged not to the low and ignorant ranks of 
society, but to the so-called upper class. 

The same author speaks of another case: A man who had suffered 
intensely from this disease in early life, afterward married and 
had nine children. Two of these were idiots, one was deaf and 
dumb, and one died in infancy. "Thus the army of innocents," says 
Dr. L. D. Bulkley, "swells in size and pleads for the restriction of a 
disease, which, it is now believed, may sometimes be inherited to even 
the third generation. 

"What the later effects of syphilis may be in producing and induc- 
ing race-generation, can not now be answered positively. We know, 
however, that it has at times decimated our American Indian tribes, 
and has wrought unspeakable havoc in Russia, in the Hawaiian Islands 
and elsewhere." 

Prostitution. If you have read carefully and thoughtfully the 
foregoing pages on the dreadful results from the violation of sexual 
laws, you are now ready to appreciate what the wise man of "holy 
writ" says in Proverbs 5: "For the lips of a strange woman (harlot) 



VENEREAL DISEASES. 33? 

drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: But hex 
end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet 
go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. . . . Remove thy 
way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house, lest 
thou . . . mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are con- 
sumed." 

Term Defined. The term prostitution is usually applied to the 
action of woman only; but it is equally applicable to man, and should 
include his acts also. A man does not sell himself for so much money, 
as does the harlot, but he does sell his purity for the gratification of 
his lustful tendencies. He persuades himself that he needs to provide 
for the proper escape of the secretions which so rapidly accumulate. 
A weak will and a strong desire combine to defeat chaste living in 
many young men. 

There are men of a low grade of morals who justify the unmarried 
man in seeking the prostitute to gratify his lustful passions. The 
excuse is that it is a necessity of nature. The wily tempter is ever 
ready to suggest reasons and formidable arguments in harmony with 
man's desires, particularly so when those desires are debasing and 
would drag him down the more surely and swiftly to the pit where the 
tempter reigns. 

The sexual passion in man cries out for some excuse for avoiding 
moral restraint. Passion and the tempter try to break the moral cord 
which holds man to duty. 

We have shown in other parts of this book that, by the highest 
authority, the semen retained in the system, instead of being an 
injury, is a positive benefit, and necessary to man's highest, most 
vigorous manly attributes. 

Perhaps no other one temptation has done more to lead the better 
class of young men astray than this one argument about the necessity 
of providing an escape for the secretions. We say the better class, 
because there are those who will break all bonds of restraint and try 
to enter the very gates of hell itself in order to appease uncontrolled 
passions, regardless of cause or effect. This latter class are prosti- 
tutes pure and simple, yielding their higher and better impulses and 
nature to satisfy cravings which lead them down, step by step, to the 
lowest depths of human degradation. 



336 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Better Pass a Night with Wild Beasts and Venomous Serpents. 

One medical authority of high standing says that for himself, he 
would prefer to take his chances to pass a night unprotected amidst 
wild beasts and venomous reptiles than to pass a night with harlots. 

Dr. Sperry warningly says: "So erroneous and so satanic have been 
the teachings of a class of persons who have gained the ears of many 
young men, that I feel called upon to declare most unqualifiedly and 
emphatically, that no condition of an unmarried man demands, or 
even justifies, from a physiological or from any other standpoint, that 
he consort sexually with any woman, or that he resort to any measure, 
natural or unnatural, for the gratification of his sexual desires. Com- 
plete absence from sexual indulgence is not only safe for an unmar- 
ried man, it is the only safe course for him." 

Many things come to the eye, the ear, the mind to tempt. But 
the temptation is not sin; it is the harboring of the thought, the per- 
mission of the mind to dwell upon it to such an extent as to lead to 
action, where action is possible. Lustful suggestions may appear to 
the eye, or knock at the door of the ear, for which we are not respon- 
sible. In this there is no sin, unless we give them a hearing or a room 
for growth. 

Sources of Temptation. Suggestive sculpture and immoral 
pictures, indecent advertisements, fashionable dress which exposes the 
form, are sources of temptation to those who desire to be chaste. 
The dance-house and theater add fuel to the fire, and the law attempts 
to protect the very vice which man strives, in his better moments, to 
combat. 

Dr. Butler, in The Land of the Veda, says, in referring to the 
dance of Christian nations: "No man in India would allow his wife or 
daughter to dance; and as to dancing with another man, he would 
forsake her forever as a woman lost to virtue and modesty if she were 
to attempt it. In their observation of white women, there is nothing 
that so much perplexes them as the fact that fathers and husbands 
will permit their wives and daughters to indulge in promiscuous dan- 
cing. 

"No argument will convince them that the act is such as a virtu- 
ous female should practice, or that its tendency is not licentious. The 
prevalence of the practice in 'Christian' nations makes our holy 



VENEREAL DISEASES. 337 

religion — which they suppose must allow it — to be abhorred by many 
of them, and often it is cast in the teeth of our missionaries when 
preaching to them. But what would these heathens say could they 
enter our opera-houses and theaters and see the shocking exposures 
of their persons which our public women there present before mixed 
assemblies? Yet they would be ten times more astonished that ladies 
of virtue and reputation should be found there, accompanied by their 
daughters, to witness the sight, and that, too, in the presence of the 
other sex! But then, they are only heathens, and don't appreciate 
the high accomplishments of Christian civilization! Still, Heaven 
grant that the future church of India may ever retain at least this item 
of the prejudices of their forefathers!" 

Dr. J. F. Scott adds: "The battle for purity can not prevail unless 
at least the decent members of the community shall have high stand- 
ards which discountenance sensuality, and unless they demand equal 
legal rights for both sexes, and cease to heap up all the degradation 
on the weaker sex." 

Archbishop Ireland, in an address at the World's Congress on 
Social Purity, said: "Tempters to sin promenade unmolested our 
streets; houses of iniquity flaunt their wickedness before the public 
gaze; orgies born of demons occur in public halls with the avowed 
connivance of the police. Sin sets itself up as a profession under 
shadowy names through which the purpose is easily read, and adver- 
tises itself through the columns of our newspapers. Base men and 
women go around entrapping unwary girlhood into lives of shame; 
procurers and procuresses are constantly prowling, as so many jack- 
als, in search of human bodies to cast them in prey to cruel lust. 

Vice Protected by Law. "Law protects sin. The child of ten or 
fourteen years in many places is presumed to be of sufficient age to 
barter away her innocence, and her seducer can not be convicted of 
crime. There are states in the country where the violation of woman 
is no violation of law, if her color is not Caucasian white. The 
impudence of vice attempts to go further and demands that infamy 
be licensed by law, that women be stamped with the badge of profes- 
sional vice, and that the partners in their iniquity be protected by the 
law of the land and be secured by legal inquests from the diseases to 
which criminal indulgence might otherwise expose them. ' ' 



338 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Says Dr. Scott: "Love and sexual instinct go hand in hand. On 
this account we see a girl fonder of another's brother, and a youth 
fonder of another's sister; we see it throughout all animate nature. 
We see it in all its purity between male and female birds— and noth- 
ing is prettier than the share which each loyal parent assumes in con- 
structing and maintaining their nest and family. ... As beautiful an 
event as we can think of is the transformation of a virgin into a wife 
and mother; and had society been rightly educated, it would regard 
the transformation of a man into a husband and father as equally 
beautiful. If both are pure, both are ennobled; if one is impure, both 
are degraded; they twain are one flesh. . . . Every physician of 
much experience can report a multitude of instances in which a pure 
girl has been degraded by marriage with a libertine, and infected 
with an acute or latent form of venereal disease of which she never 
suspects the nature, but on account of which she enters upon a life of 
invalidism, her children often sharing in the catastrophe. . . . Men 
who make a practice of illicit intercourse almost never escape disease. 
There may, of course, be a few exceptions to this rule; but practically 
every worshiper at Phryne's shrine receives as his punishment the 
inevitable sting of disease; and he may acquire all the forms — 
gonorrhea, chancroids and syphilis." 

Prof. H. A. Kelly, of Johns Hopkins University, a surgeon of 
experience, says: "To consort with prostitutes blunts a man's finer 
Sensibilities, it lowers his respect for women, it leaves its indelible 
marks in disease, for, sooner or later, every man who indulges his 
passions unlawfully contracts disease. It is not possible for either 
fnen or women who prostitute themselves freely to escape it. And 
these diseases are not only the most loathsome and the most disgust- 
ing in their early manifestations, but they have the horrible character- 
istic of becoming latent. A man who contracts disease of this sort 
can never be sure that he is cured, for venereal disease is not a merci- 
ful disease like cancer, killing its victim within a certain time. Rather 
it is death in life; such local lesion may occur as to destroy forever 
the sexual function, and the unchaste man finds that he is incapable 
of realizing one of the chief blessings of life, surrounding himself 
With a family of children. ' ' 

Let it be clearly understood that it is not alone that the body is di§- 



VENEREAL DISEASES. 339 

eased by cohabiting with harlots. The whole man is sick; the soul 
is wounded; the moral character is marred; manhood can never attain 
so exalted an altitude after the contamination of the harlot. 

The following beautiful poem by Hezekiah Butterworth expresses 
the thought fully. : 

"I walked in the woodland meadows, 

Where sweet the thrushes sing, 
And found on a bed of mosses 

A bird with a broken wing. 
I healed its wing, and each morning 

It sang its old sweet strain, 
But the bird with a broken pinion 

Never soared so high again. 

'I found a young life broken 

By sin's seductive art, 
And, touched with a Christ-like pity, 

I took him to my heart; 
He lived with a nobler purpose, 

And struggled not in vain, 
But the life that sin had stricken 

Never soared so high again. 

''But the bird with a broken pinion 

Kept another from the snare, 

And the life that sin had stricken, 

Raised another from despair; 
Each loss has its own compensation, 

There's healing for each pain, 
But the bird with a broken pinion 
Never soared so high again." 

Can Not Hide Her Trade-mark. To no man, not inflamed with 
wine or passion, is a prostitute attractive. It is rarely that a harlot 
can hide the trade-mark of her profession, for it is stamped upon her 
face, which may otherwise be fair and comely, and is marked in her 
very walk and manner. She may appear in gorgeous dress, as she 
frequently does, but the glitter of the ''scarlet letter" is not dulled 
thereby. 

The most trustworthy authorities affirm that almost without excep- 
tion every prostitute of any considerable experience has had gonorrhea 
at some time, and in many cases syphilis also. This is necessarily so 



340 SOCIAL PURITY. 

because they admit all classes of men, diseased or otherwise. Any 
one who has the money may have access to their persons. Gonorrhea 
is the most prevalent disease which afflicts mankind, and, with rare 
exceptions, every man who indulges for any length of time in unlaw- 
ful sexual intercourse has had gonorrhea, or syphilis, or both. 

"By frequent douches, astringent washes and perfumes, the care- 
ful harlot may deceive her paramour into the belief that she is all his 
fancy and passion could desire; but chronic and filthy discharges flow 
profusely from the whole tribe, and the arts of the toilet only conceal 
the external evidences of their disorders. A very good damper to the 
longing of one who desires to go into a brothel would be to stand 
outside for a time and observe the kind of men whom he is to follow 
— silly fops, diseased and rotten men, worn-out old men, married 
men and unmarriageable men. . . . The idea that one can cohabit 
with a clean harlot — one who has not been exposed to the embraces 
of diseased men — may be absolutely set aside as absurd. No self- 
respecting man who fully appreciates the risks would expose himself 
to such dangers, which are perhaps greater than the risk of eating 
mushrooms gathered by ignorant hands. ' ' — Dr. J. F. Scott. 

Prof. F. C. Fowler, in his treatise on Life^ makes the following 
note: "There is now in one of the insane asylums of this state (New 
York) a gibbering idiot, who, prior to his insanity, was advised by a 
well-known physician of New York, as a means of recovery from self- 
abuse, to have intercourse with women (prostitutes, of course). I 
would as soon advise a drunkard to get drunk as a means of curing his 
insatiable appetite for drink. I know it to be a quite common prac- 
tice with a large number of physicians, who ought to know better, to 
thus advise young men and boys, and also to tell these boys that a 
certain amount of intercourse (with prostitutes, of course) is neces- 
sary to health. Can it be possible that, knowing how liable they will 
be to contract venereal diseases, they advise them with a view to future 
fees? It seems incredible. ' ' 

We had occasion in another part of this book to refer to the Jukes 
family of six generations of criminals. In that place we wished to 
show the influence of heredity; here we purpose to show the influence 
of environment; or, perhaps it would be better to say, to show the 
parallelism between ignorance, poverty, prostitution, intemperance 



VENEREAL DISEASES. 341 

and crime. Not that the presence of any of these implies the pres- 
ence of any one or all of the others. Neither do we imply that any 
one of these is, necessarily, the cause or result of any one or all of 
the others. The old adage, "Birds of a feather flock together," seems 
to hold good in this place. 

The Jukes. R. S. Dugdale, who traced the Max-Jukes line of 
descent, gives many interesting and valuable tables in his little book 
called The Jukes. From these tables we glean a few facts: 

Mr. Dugdale traces 709 individuals descended from the one woman 
known as Jukes. These are not all of her descendants, but those 
only whom he could trace properly. Of these 709 men and women, 
91 were illegitimate, born out of wedlock; out of 162 marriageable 
women, 84, or 52 T % per cent, were harlots; 18 had kept brothels; 67 
had syphilis; 206 were paupers during some period of their lives; j6 
were criminals; 14 only acquired and retained any property. All 
the others belonged either to the poor or pauper class. All were 
uneducated, a few only being able to read and write. Skilled laborers 
among them were few, most of the men being common laborers or 
loafers. 

In regard to syphilis, Mr. Dugdale remarks that the disease which 
the above figures show as the most common, is the most destructive, 
subtle and difficult to eradicate. "In this exhibit are enumerated 
only the cases properly vouched for by competent physicians, or 
directly drawn from the records of the poorhouse, and so notorious 
as to be trustworthy. Here the proportion of those blighted by it 
reaches 10.86 per cent. ; but this does not include half of the victims of 
this class of disorders. On the authority of physicians who know, 
from 25 to 30 per cent, are tainted with it. Significant as are these 
suggestive figures, they are weak as compared to the lesson which is 
pointed out when we analyze the line along which this disease runs % 
and note its devastation of individual careers and its pauperizing 
influence on successive generations. If it were merely the record of 
so many human beings who have simply died, it would lose most of 
its significance; but in view that this is the record of so many who 
have lived maimed lives, maimed in numberless ways; entailing lives 
full of weakness, which is wretchedness; sapping the vitality of inno- 
cent ones to the third and fourth generations and constantly broad- 



342 SOCIAL PURITY. 

ening the stream, and breeding complex social disorders growing out 
of these physiological degenerations, the question grows into larger 
and more momentous proportions the more minutely we look into it." 

Following these strong words, Mr. Dugdale traces the line of sev- 
eral syphilitic cases showing their dreadful results in the offspring as 
far as the third generation. The three most predominating results 
seemed in the cases noted to be physical degeneracy, pauperism and 
prostitution. 

Mr. Dugdale also gives the results of his study of the criminals in 
the prisons of the state of New York. He made a personal examina- 
tion of 152 males and 1 female at Auburn, 92 males and 6 females at 
Sing Sing, making a total of 251 persons. Of this number, 18 were 
rejected as totally untrustworthy as to their statements, leaving 233 
whose statements were wholly or partly accepted. For our use, per- 
haps these tables are of more value than those regarding the Jukes 
family, as they cover a broader field of criminology. From these 
tables we glean the following facts: 

All were criminals of different degrees 233 

Habitual drunkards per cent., 39. 

Intemperate father or mother, or both " 42.5 

From pauper stock " 22.3 

From criminal family " 17.1 

Habitual criminals " 75.6 

Neglected childhood " 47. 

Orphans " 41. 

Of the habitual drunkards whose record concerning venereal dis- 
eases was trustworthy, the following are the per cents. : 

Those having gonorrhea 20. 

Those having syphilis 41. 

Total venereal disease 61. 

This does not include all the habitual drinkers or habitual crim- 
inals, only those whose record, as given by themselves, could be relied 
upon in the matter of venereal diseases. It is assumed that if a com- 
plete and correct record could have been obtained, the showing would 
have been no better. It is a terrible exhibition as it is, and should 
startle thoughtful people into a recognition of the evil of such a com- 
munity of blighted humanity. 



VENEREAL DISEASES. 343 

The same gentleman points out facts as obtained from the tables 
that the average age at which drinking and prostitution commenced 
was fifteen years of age. The age at which the drink habit became 
fixed was from twenty-one to twenty-three years of age. There is a 
dreadful and suggestive parallelism between inebriety, prostitution 
and criminality, as shown in these tables. In this connection Mr. 
Dugdale says: "It must not, however, be argued from these figures 
that inebriety is the cause of these men becoming habitual criminals, 
because there are other causes of crime which it is more than probable 
are the common causes of both crime and intemperance, notably 
sexiial excess and insane ancestry." 

Sowing Wild Oats. Mr. Hughes, the author of Tom Brown at 
Oxford, in speaking of the indiscretions and sins of men called some- 
times "the sowing of wild oats ," says very significantly: "What a 
man, be he young, old or middle aged, sows, that, and nothing else, 
shall he reap. The only thing to do with wild oats is to put them 
carefully into the hottest part of the fire and get them burnt to dust, 
every seed of them. If you sow them, no matter in what ground, up 
they will come with long, tough roots and luxuriant stalks and leaves, 
as sure as there is a sun in heaven. The devil, too, whose special 
crop they are, will see that they thrive, and you, and nobody else, will 
have to reap them; and no common reaping will get them out of the 
soil which must be dug deep again and again. Well for you if with 
all your care, you can make the ground sweet again by your dying day. ' ' 

We have become accustomed to the thought that youth is the time 
for "sowing wild oats," and that only the young are so unwise, and 
that because of their immaturity and inexperience, they may be par- 
doned. Pardon may be granted, but not until the penalty is paid. 

These are dangerous years, but the older man also may impair his 
health and disgrace himself and family by yielding to the sins of the 
flesh which tell many a pitiful story to those who can read the signs. 
Dr. A. H. Bradford illustrates the point in the following: 

"Two of the most distinguished members of the clerical profession 
within a few years have disappeared from New York. Both of them 
later reappeared in distant lands; both were driven from positions of 
prominence and usefulness because they had given way to sensual 
temptation, and both were, probably, over fifty years of age. 



344 SOCIAL PURITY. 

"One of the most distinguished of modern editors was found dead 
where no decent man had a right to be found at any time, and one of 
the most eminent of modern statesmen, trained in a religious home 
and believed to be a religious man, was saved from inevitable ruin 
only by the generosity of a forgiving and unhappy wife. 

"Old age is not proof against folly, even if it is not quite so prone 
to overt acts of wrong. There is a common saying, which has more 
truth than poetry in it, 'There is no fool like an old fool.' Old men 
seem to be singularly open to the fascinations of designing and 
unprincipled women. Especially are elderly people liable to become 
victims of drugs. Within a brief period I have known several who, 
without any evil intention, have grown to be slaves to a merciless 
tyrant — a tyrant that would not relax his hold upon them until merci- 
ful death gave release. Most of these men were in the professions 
and nearer fifty than forty years of age. If it were not for reviving a 
now almost forgotten scandal, I might mention the name of one of 
our most distinguished and deservedly honored American citizens, one 
who had won renown at home and abroad, who, in a weak and too 
confident old age, well-nigh wrecked his fair fame and that of his 
family. 

"What is the explanation of these undeniable facts? 

"The first suggestion is that courses of mental corruption have 
begun to bear fruit. Most sins are the efflorescence of long courses 
of evil -thinking. A young man could not be persuaded to steal, but, 
by allowing himself to think of what he might do if he had the money, 
he at length persuades himself that he may take it without incurring 
the consequences, which are inevitable and remorseless. Such proc- 
esses of reasoning are especially common concerning the sins of 
animalism. There is a deep ethical philosophy in these words, 'Thou 
wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee;' and in 
their echo in the New Testament, 'Fix your affections on things 
above. ' He whose thoughts are virtuous seldom, if ever, is corrupt 
in act. Where the gates of the mind are barred against illicit sugges- 
tion, vice is almost unknown. Temptation is subjective before it is 
objective." 

"The only safety for any, old or young, is in learning to love the 
true, the beautiful and the good; in becoming so inspired with lofty 



VENEREAL DISEASES. 345 

ideals that they shall love them for their own sake; in keeping the 
doors of their minds shut and locked against suggestions of the pos- 
sible delights of wrong-doing, and in cultivating the habit of thinking 
that it is a far more awful thing to do wrong than, having done wrong, 
to be found out." 

In the Life of Alfred Lord Temtyson, the son says his father often 
spoke of his characters in his Idylls as young men are often spoken of 
in real life. One time, in speaking of them, he said: "When sin is 
allowed in the soul, it not only poisons the spring of life in the sinner, 
but spreads its poison through the whole community." Another time 
he said: "Tender natures sink under the blight so that that which is 
highest in them begins to work their death. ' ' Tennyson most strongly 
believed in purity of thought and life. He believed in the power of 
repentance, yet, with his finest characters, repentance could not avert 
the doom which sin had wrought. There is no way possible whereby 
a young man can escape reaping as he sows. The strong man, always 
in his youth, like Joseph, the Galahad of the ancient days, wears the 
white armor. 



23 



CHAPTER XIX. 

CRIMINAL ABORTION. 

Its History. Criminal abortion, or foeticide, has been practiced 
among all nations, with, perhaps, the exception of the Jews. Jewish 
wives considered it an honor to bear large families to their husbands. 
The sexual hygienic laws of Moses were strict; hence the wonderful 
Jewish race as we still find it scattered among all the other nations 
of the world, even in our own day. 

The Mohammedan laws condemn foeticide, yet it is extensively 
practiced among that people. 

In the far east, China, Japan and India, foeticide is practiced to a 
horrible extent. These people place little value on human life, even 
after birth. The teeming millions of these countries have a fearful 
struggle for existence. There are millions who, from birth to death, 
never have their hunger fully satisfied for any length of time. In this 
awful struggle for existence these people have none of the restraining 
influences of the teachings of Christ. No wonder then that infanti- 
cide should, in these benighted, poverty-stricken lands, be so fearfully 
prevalent. But what shall we say of our own favored land, yes, even 
the most favored parts of it, when we learn that ^foeticide is here 
practiced also, even to an alarming extent? 

Some of the Greek philosophers taught that fceticide^was not only 
justifiable, but was beneficial to the race. But the results of these 
teachings became so bad that the practice was vigorously condemned 
by the later Roman writers. Rome became a carnival of crime in this 
matter. " History repeats itself." This crime of child-killing was 
confined largely, as in our own day, to the upper stratum of society. 

It is estimated that in modern society as high as twenty per cent. 
of the cases of pregnancy, accidental abortion (unpremeditated) over- 
takes the mothers. "So frequently does this accident occur, uninten- 
tionally and regretably, that one must be exceedingly loth to impute 
wrong motives to a woman when he may have cause to believe that 
she has so suffered. But with every allowance for the great frequency 

346 



CRIMINAL ABORTION. 347 

of accidental abortion, it is well known by those who are in a position 
to know, that fhe intentional and unnecessary destruction of the fcetus 
represents a carnage of such vast proportions as to be almost beyond 
belief. 

A Dark Page in History. "There is no darker page in history than 
the record of this sin, and probably at no period has the slaughter 
been greater than in our own times. The results to our own country 
and to the world at large have been disastrous to the last degree, and 
with the spread of atrocious advertising by abortionists, and the open 
display and sale of alleged abortifacient nostrums by druggists, one 
can not wonder at the fact that it is alarmingly on the increase. " 
From Sexual Instinct, by Dr. James F. Scott. 

What It Is. " Criminal abortion is the act of causing abortion or 
miscarriage in a pregnant woman, unless when necessary to preserve 
her life." 

For over eighteen hundred years a war of ideas has waged in 
Christian nations as to when life begins. The significance of this 
discussion rests on the practice of abortion. If life begins only after 
the "quickening" in the mother, then criminal abortion can be per- 
formed only after that period. If life begins at the fertilization of 
the ovum in the mother, then the intentional expulsion of the foetus, 
however small, is criminal abortion. 

Laws Regarding Abortion. The English law makes no distinc- 
tion. It says, "'Every woman being with child" regardless of the 
age of the foetus. 

Some states of our Union place criminal abortion after the 
"quickening." It is hoped that all the states will follow the example 
of the British law in this matter. 

Let the reader turn back to the chapter on the Origin of Life, 
and carefully consider for himself whether or not there is life after 
the spermatozoon of the male has dissolved itself into the ovum of 
the female. Within that germ are all the possibilities of a human 
life, perhaps a Shakespeare, a Mendelssohn or a Webster; perhaps, 
and probably, only an ordinary human being, and yet a human being. 
Dare we take that life and stand guiltless before our own conscience 
and our God? 

Penalty. In all Christian nations the penalty for producing crim-» 



348 SOCIAL PURITY. 

inal abortion is severe. In England and Ireland the punishment is 
imprisonment for a longer or shorter time. Should the mother die, 
the crime becomes murder, with its penalties. With some variations, 
the penalties in the different countries of Europe are severe. The 
different states of the Union vary, but all are severe, especially so if 
the mother dies. 

A Committee of the Medico-Legal Society of New York in 1872 
made a report in regard to the subject of criminal abortion. This 
committee was composed of leading members of the bar and of the 
medical profession. Referring to the efforts of the early Christian 
Church to purge itself of unholy practices, the committee makes the 
following statements: "At length Christianity came to measure 
swords with the growing evil [of abortion] . For a time the contest 
was warm. A society corrupted by ill-gotten wealth and sensual 
gratification would not surrender such convenient doctrine without a 
determined resistance. The battle waxed fierce, but the already 
assured triumph of the purifying faith was postponed by a compro- 
mise. . . . By this compromise it was agreed to consider the foetus as 
endowed with life only from the date of the maternal sensation called 
'quickening.' Abortions forced after 'quickening' were branded as 
serious crimes, but all so caused before this period were suffered to 
pass unnoticed. Henceforth 'quick' became a word of evil omen. 
It is true the canon law subsequently disregarded this compromise and 
declared the foetus alive from conception, and condemned its destruc- 
tion at any period of utro-gestation as a great and wicked crime. 

"The Christian Church, to its eternal honor be it said, has ever 
advocated and enforced the principle of the inviolability of foetal life. 
But the mischief could not be undone. A doctrine, only a degree less 
heartless than its pagan predecessor, took a firm hold on society. . . . 
Among those who are competent to pronounce on this question of 
'quickening' there is, however, but one opinion, and to it your com- 
mittee ask the undivided attention of the community. The foetus is 
alive from conception, and all intentional killing of it is murder." 

Position of Catholic Church. In the Pastoral Letter of the 
tenth Provincial Council of Baltimore was sent out the following con- 
cerning infanticide: "The abiding interest we feel in the preservation 
of the morals of our country, constrains us to raise our voice against 



CRIMINAL ABORTION. 349 

the daily increasing practice of infanticide, especially before birth. 
The notoriety which this monstrous crime has obtained of late, and 
the hecatombs of infants that are annually sacrificed to Moloch to 
gratify an unlawful passion, are a sufficient justification for our allud- 
ing to a painful and delicate subject. . . . The inhuman crime might 
be compared to the murder of the 'innocents,' except that the crim- 
inals in this case exceed in enormity the cruelty of Herod. If it is 
a sin to take away the life even of an enemy, in what language can 
we characterize the double guilt of those whose souls are stained with 
the innocent blood of their own unborn offspring? The murder of an 
infant before its birth is, in the sight of God and the Church, as great 
a crime as could be the killing of a child after birth." 

Position of Presbyterian Church. The following are the words 
of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United 
States concerning infanticide: "Nor can we shut our eyes to the fact 
that the horrible crime of infanticide, especially in the form of 
destruction by parents of their own offspring before birth, also prevails 
to an alarming extent. . . . This assembly regards the destruction by 
parents of their own offspring before birth with abhorrence, as a crime 
against God and against nature; and as the frequency of such murders 
can no longer be concealed, we hereby warn those that are guilty of 
this crime that, except they repent, they can not inherit eternal life." 

Other churches have also hurled their thunderbolts of condemna- 
tion against child-murder, in resolutions, but, as a rule, the pulpits 
make but slight reference to it. 

Report of State Board. The following paragraph is found in the 
Report of the Special Committee on Criminal Abortion of the Michigan 
State Board of Health: "To so great an extent is abortion now prac- 
ticed by American Protestant women that, by calculation of one of 
the committee, based upon correspondence with nearly one hundred 
physicians, there come to the knowledge of the profession seventeen 
abortions to every one hundred pregnations; to these the committee 
believe may be added as many more that never came to the physicians' 
knowledge, making thirty-four per cent, or one-third of all cases end- 
ing in miscarriage; that in the United States the number is not less 
than one hundred thousand, and the number of women who die from 
its immediate effects not less than six thousand per annum." 



350 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Dr. Edward Cox, president of the Michigan State Medical Society, 
says: "A combination of circumstances has produced a depraved and 
debauched public sentiment that not only winks at, but condones, 
palliates and defends the crime. It goes further in many instances; 
it recognizes the abortionist as a useful member of society, and even 
extols him as a benefactor. It will take line upon line, and precept 
upon precept, fact, figures and eloquence to overcome this false and 
pernicious sentiment. Yet it must be overcome before we can make 
the least progress in the much-needed reformation." 

The ordinary reader may think that Dr. Cox's statements are over- 
drawn, but all physicians of extended practice know the prevalence 
of this awful crime. One hundred years ago in our eastern states it 
was common to see families with from five to twelve children. Even 
at the present day in the great middle-west, especially among the 
European immigrants, the same conditions may be found. But in 
the older communities along the Atlantic slope, especially among the 
American families, the birth-rate has greatly decreased. It is not 
uncommon to find but one child, and at most but two children, in a 
family; many times, none at all. Of course, abortion accounts for 
the absence of some of these children, but not for all of them. 

Crowning Sin of the Age. We quote from Rev. B. D. Sinclair, 
on the Crowning Sin of the Age. Specifically, the "crowning 
sin" is criminal abortion, though in a broader sense, it includes all 
those sins that are committed in order to limit the size of the family. 
He also speaks strongly against all those influences that lead to non- 
marriage. The sermon has direct reference to New England, but it 
applies as well to the whole nation. 

Among other things he says: "The crowning sin of the age lies at 
the root of our spiritual life. A sin which, secret in its nature, can 
not fail to paralyze its pure Christian life, and neutralize every effort 
for righteousness and holiness which the Church puts forth. A sin 
of such delicacy that people affect to be shocked when it is publicly 
alluded to, and yet a sin which is practiced, applauded and com- 
mended so widely in private, that even the children are not ignorant 
of its prevalence among their elders. Indeed, a sin in which, in many 
cases, daughters are deliberately nurtured and trained, so that when 
opportunity is presented for its practice, the conscience is so stultified 



CRIMINAL ABORTION. 351 

and suborned by long training and familiarity with its hellish and 
poisonous consequences, that it is committed without compunc- 
tion. . . . 

"Children are just as logical and natural a product of marriage as 
the fruit of the tree. . . . The prevention of offspring is pre-eminently 
the sin of New England; it is fast becoming the national sin of 
America. . . . Women, professors of Christ's holy religion, according 
to evidence in my possession and evidence which any one may readily 
obtain, go about advising young married women to forestall the ordi- 
nance of God, by preventing or obstructing the legitimate end of 
marriage, the birth and rearing of children." 

In this sermon, the Rev. Mr. Sinclair seems to make no distinction 
between limiting the number of offspring through continence and by 
means of abortion; yet he seems to have abortion in mind, for he 
says: "Death to the innocent, unborn life, death in many cases to 
the sinners themselves, who would pervert the laws of God. ... A 
vast army of women have gone to early graves, and their death cer- 
tificates have read, 'hemorrhage,' when the word ought to have been 
written, 'abortion.' . . . Many a woman is buried with Christian 
burial, over whose grave ought to be placed a tombstone with the 
inscription, 'Here lies a suicide, assisted to the grave by her murder- 
ers — her husband, her female counselors and the conscienceless phy- 
sician. ' . . . I know what the miserable apologists for this vice and 
crime say in defense of it. ... I know they claim that life begins at 
birth, or at a certain time prior to it. There is no scientist on earth 
who will undertake to affirm that when the life of the unborn child 
has once begun — and the science affirms that life has begun from the 
first — that there is not life as much as at any subsequent time before 
or after death." 

Knowledge is Safety. Dr. Geo. H. Napheys, in his book, Knowl- 
edge is Safety, says: "There is one method widely in use in this 
country for the limitation of offspring which deserves only the most 
unqualified condemnation, which is certain to bring upon the perpe- 
trators swift and terrible retribution, and which is opposed to every 
sentiment of nature and morality. We mean the crime of abortion. 
From the moment of conception a new life commences ; a new individual 
exists; another child is added to the family. The mother who delib- 



352 SOCIAL PURITY. 

erately sets about to destroy this life, either by want of care, or by 
taking drugs, or by using instruments, commits as great a crime, is 
just as guilty, as if she strangled her new-born infant, or as if she 
snatched from her own breast her six-months' darling and dashed out 
its brains against the wall. Its blood is upon her head, and as sure 
as there is a God and a judgment, that blood will be required of her. 
The crime she commits is murder — child-murder — the slaughter of a 
speechless, helpless being, whom it is her duty, beyond all things 
else, to cherish and preserve." 

Perhaps few, if any, intelligent observers who have passed middle 
life but can point to cases of wrecked lives, or even of death, to those 
who have made use of the crime of abortion in order to rid themselves 
of the responsibility of maternity. In case of a prospect of illegiti- 
mate offspring the temptation to commit abortion is very great, 
especially so, if by so doing the shame of adultery may be covered. 
There comes to the mind of the writer a case of this kind in which a 
young woman lost her life, and yet her shame was not hidden, by 
attempted abortion. Better a thousand times the shame of one rather 
than the crime of the other. 

False Ideas. Dr. H. S. Pomeroy, of Boston, says: "We meet in our 
practice women who would hesitate to harm a fly, but who admit to 
having destroyed a half dozen or more of their unborn children, speak- 
ing of it as they would of drowning of superfluous kittens. . . . Many 
a one guilty of child-murder began the course of crime by simply fos- 
tering the idea that children are unnecessary encumbrances. ... It 
is surprising to what an extent the laity believe that medical science 
knows how to control the birth-rate. Just here let me say that I 
know of but one prescription which is both safe and sure — namely, 
that the sexes shall remain apart. . . . The temporal avoidance of 
conception may be desirable and proper to prevent too rapid child- 
bearing on the part of women who can not nurse their infants, or who 
have their usual periods while nursing, . . . and so are liable to too 
frequent conception. For such and other legitimate cases, nature has 
provided a means which, with the practice of self-denial, will give a 
reasonable degree of security." 

Cause of Female Weakness. "We appeal to all with earnest and 
with threatening words . . . that abortions are the constant cause of 



CRIMINAL ABORTION. 353 

violent and dangerous womb diseases, and frequently of early death; 
that they bring on mental weakness, and often insanity; that they are 
the most certain means to destroy domestic happiness which can be 
adopted. Better, far better, to bear a child every year for twenty 
years, than to resort to such a wicked and injurious step; better to 
die, if need be, in the pangs of childbirth, than to live with such a 
weight of sin on the conscience." The above are the words, the 
strong, fearful words, of a physician of great experience and of com- 
manding intellect. 

Intentional Abortion— Rank Murder. We close the subject with 
a citation from Mrs. P. B. Saur, M. D.: "Intentional abortion is to 
all purposes a murder. This is now so considered by all who are 
informed upon the subject. Among the ancients the distinction was 
made that before the time of quickening the child has no life, and 
therefore there was no sin in its destruction. This monstrous heresy 
against religion, science and common sense is not without its imitators 
in our own time. That the embryo is alive and hence quick from the 
moment of conception, modern science has abundantly proven. It 
follows, then, that this crime is equally as great whether committed 
in the early weeks of pregnancy or at a more advanced period of the 
life of the foetus. 

"The laws of all civilized countries make abortion a crime and 
the punishment severe. All who are accessory to it may be punished 
with imprisonment, and in some cases even with death. Aside from 
this, however, the maternal instincts of the mother and a sufficient 
regard for her own health should prevent any and all attempts of this 
character. The amount of physical suffering that may follow can not 
be estimated. Inflammation of the womb and kindred disorders of 
the genitive organs are almost sure to result, frequently resisting the 
most skilful treatment. At other times poisoning may follow from 
the retention of the placenta and membranes of the foetus. This may 
produce immediate death, and at best can but end in broken health 
and lifelong suffering." 



CHAPTER XX. 

LARGE OR SMALL FAMILIES — WHICH? 

Two Sides to the Question. Which are the more desirable, large 
families or small families? Which will produce the higher, nobler, 
cleaner race? Which will bring more pleasure, physically, intellec- 
tually, morally and spiritually, into the world? It is not our purpose 
here to attempt to decide so important a question. That must be left 
to the individual. There are, doubtless, two sides to the question. 
Perhaps it would be better to say that the truth lies on both sides. 
Each individual case must be settled by itself. There are so many 
conditions and exceptions that general statements express too much 
or too little. The ultimate decision must be made by clean, conscien- 
tious men and women, after mature deliberation. In too many cases 
the bearing of children is left to passion and blind chance. 

It should be clearly understood that the methods of limiting off- 
spring are assumed to be pure, chaste, virtuous. The motive which 
leads to a decision may be pure or impure, noble or ignoble. In the 
discussion we assume pure motives in the mind of the actor. 

Some advocates of large families assume base motives in those who 
seek to limit their offspring. On the other hand, some advocates of 
small families accuse the other party of pandering to their own want 
of self-control. But we wish to eliminate all incorrect motives from 
the discussion as unworthy a place in the mind. Doubtless improper 
motives do warp the better judgment of many. 

A Desire for Offspring Natural. A desire for offspring is as nat- 
ural to man or woman as is the desire for food. When the desire is 
otherwise, there must be something in the way; some artificial rea- 
son; a violation or perversion of the instinct for parenthood. This 
fact suggests causes which lead to undue limitation of the family. 
Let nature have her reasonable demands in this matter. We cite the 
opinions of some who advocate large families. 

Rev. B. D. Sinclair says: "The institution of marriage lies at the 
foundation of the Church and State. Marriage is the Gibraltar of 

354 






L_ 



SUNSHINE AND HER PETS. 



LARGE OR SMALL FAMILIES. 355 

virtue, the basis of home, the bulwark of the commonwealth, at once 
the ward and the guardian of the Church of God. ... The destruc- 
tion of the end or purpose of an institution is virtually the destruction 
of the institution itself. ... I maintain that any marriage which 
deliberately sets about the violation of God's law as to the end of its 
institution is . . . lust, pure and simple. . . . When two people 
determine to live together as husband and wife, and evade the conse- 
quences and responsibilities of marriage, they are simply engaged in 
prostitution without the infamy which attaches to that vice and crime. 
... It is not strange that we find the sin of which I speak, com- 
mencing its malevolent assault, in the spirit of the times, by attacking 
the institution of marriage itself. 

Strong Words. "A certain class of older people advise, and a cer- 
tain class of young people seem to think that they must begin life where 
their parents left off. If a young man can not set up the kind of estab- 
lishment his father has secured after years of toil and labor, both on 
his own part and that of his wife, the young man is advised, or thinks, 
that he must not marry. This reasoning is vicious, and positively 
sinful. . . . Children are just as logical and natural a product of 
marriage as the fruit is of a tree. ... An outrageous violation of all 
law, natural and revealed, is the cool and villainous contract by which 
people entering the marital relation engage, in defiance of the laws of 
God and the laws of the commonwealth, that they shall be unincum- 
bered with a family of children. ' ' 

Celebrities from Large Families. H. L. Hastings, in his essay on 
Small Families, notes several cases of large families. He says: "It 
is stated that Napoleon Bonaparte was one of a family of thirteen, 
Benjamin Franklin one of seventeen, John Bright one of eleven chil- 
dren, Charles Dickens one of eight children, Gladstone one of seven 
children or more, Dr. William Makepeace Thackeray, grandfather 
of the noted author, was one of sixteen children. . . . The children 
of Lyman Beecher numbered thirteen, nine of them being the chil- 
dren of Roxanna Foote, his first wife. His seven sons all became 
ministers of the Gospel ; two of his daughters were well-known writers 
— one of them being the most noted female writer of her age, Harriet 
Beecher Stowe, who was the seventh, Henry Ward Beecher being the 
eighth. Daniel Webster was one of five children. T. DeWitt 



356 SOCIAL PURITY. 

Talmage was the fourteenth child in his father's family. Charles H. 
Spurgeon was the eldest of a family of seventeen children, and his 
father, John Spurgeon, was the youngest of eight children. John 
Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was the fifteenth child, his 
brother Charles, the author of more English poetry than was written 
by any other man, being the nineteenth and youngest child of the 
gifted Susanna Wesley, whose ashes sleep in Bunhill field in London, 
and who was herself the twenty-fifth child of Dr. Samuel Annesly, 
who was twice married. Dwight L. Moody was the sixth child in a 
family of nine." 

Poodle and Puny Children. The author from whom we have 
quoted above aptly says in conclusion: "Let those who think they 
best serve their generation by leading about a little woolly puppy, 
while a hired nurse attends to one or two puny, sickly, feeble-bodied 
children, consider whether their method is likely to produce better 
results than are manifest in those great households out of which came 
the grand and excellent women who shape the destinies of nations by 
their lofty thoughts and noble deeds, who bless their parents by the 
fidelity of their maturer years, and who make the world brighter and 
better by their dwelling in it." 

While this citation of noted cases gives weight to the argument for 
large families, it is by no means conclusive. Physical strength, intel- 
lectual endowments and moral qualities of the parents must be prop- 
erly considered before a verdict can be reached. 

Choose Your Wife from a "Bunch" of Girls. One writer advises 
a young man to choose a wife from a "bunch" of girls in the same 
family. She will be more self-reliant, more thoughtful of others, 
more sympathetic, more helpful than if taken from a family where 
there is only one son or daughter. This may or may not be wise 
advice. A mother hen will make as much fuss over one chick as she 
would over a brood of a full dozen. Query: Does the one chick stand 
any better chance than any one of the dozen? 

The ratio of birth-rate to death-rate is deemed of profound interest 
by all political economists. Some think the number of births may be 
too great, resulting in the over-population of the earth. This is 
known as the Malthusian theory. Malthus proved to the satisfaction 
of himself and many others, that at no distant day the increase of pop- 



LARGE OR SMALL FAMILIES. 357 

ulation would outrun the productive power of the earth; of course, 
starvation and misery would be the result. On the contrary, others 
point to the fact that, when the death-rate is equal to or greater than 
the birth-rate, it is a sign of degeneracy in a nation. History seems 
to sustain this proposition. 

"The Hon. David Mills, Canada's minister of justice, shakes his 
head mournfully over the New Englanders of the ancient stock. He 
says that they are upon the soil, but not of it; that they dislike farm- 
ing as much as their women do children. If it were not for the 
foreigners who have taken up their residence in the New England 
states, fields would not be cultivated or children born there. 'A 
descendant of the Pilgrim Fathers would be as rare as the great auk, 
and the race is sure to share the fate of the dodo. ' 

Mr. Mills thinks that this decline presents a serious as well as a 
curious problem to the country. There is, he says, something wrong 
with a people who under conditions so favorable have such small fam- 
ilies. And he makes this charge: 'The United States woman does 
not realize her duties to God and her country, and thinks more of her 
own pleasure than she does of the responsibilities which the Creator 
has imposed upon her.' Then, applying the same logic to the whole 
country that he has to New England, the Canadian statesman declares 
that if it were not for immigration our population would not increase. 

For this last assertion there is certainly a strong basis of fact. 
During the decade between the last two censuses about one-third of 
our increase was due to direct immigration. Moreover, the remaining 
two-thirds must be very largely ascribed to the birth of American 
children of foreign parentage. An American population absolutely 
cut off from foreign immigration for two generations would probably 
increase much less rapidly than the population of Germany or Great 
Britain. An American population thoroughly permeated with the 
ideas of those classes whom Mr. Mills has in mind would increase no 
more rapidly than does the population of France. 

But, like the population of France, ours would be governed 
principally by prudential reasons, and it is yet to be proved that they 
conflict with a duty. Duty is better fulfilled by the excellent care of 
a small family than by the bearing of a large one with prospects of 
neglect, penury and toil. There is high antiquity in the notion that 



358 SOCIAL PURITY. 

the moral law demands a dozen or more children in every household, 
but it has its drawbacks. ' ' 

Small Families. N. V. Riddell, in his admirable book, A Child of 
Light, gives some weighty reasons for supreme care in bringing chil- 
dren into the world. He does not specifically advocate small families; 
that is only an incident in his treatment of the subject of parentage. 
Large families, when each offspring is a ''child of light," is God's 
heritage both to the parents and to the nation at large. 

"The old idea that God sends all the children in a family, few or 
many, in rapid succession or far apart, strong or weak, bright or 
stupid, good or bad, and pre-ordains their lives, has little place in the 
minds of the well-informed. This malicious doctrine, born of man's 
selfishness and paraded under the cloak of religion, has caused thou- 
sands to be unfortunately born. Suppose we should apply the same 
doctrine to the postnatal development of children, pay no attention 
to their physical welfare, intellectual training or moral development, 
but just turn the whole matter over to Providence and blind chance, 
what sort of children would we raise? . . . Parents should realize 
that they are responsible not only for the number and frequency 
of births, but for the physical, mental and moral character of their 
children. . . . 

"A young minister recently became angry in my lecture-room and 
bolted, making a very uncomplimentary remark as he left the 
church. I learned later that seven years before he had married a 
beautiful, strong, noble woman who was now confined to her room a 
physical wreck. During her brief married life she had given birth to 
six children, the two eldest were strong but very ungovernable, two 
were puny and nervous, and two were still-born. The reverend 
gentleman had undoubtedly entrusted the birth of his children and 
health of his wife to Divine Providencel I was not surprised that he 
opposed the doctrine of heredity and parental responsibility. ' ' 

High Authority Cited. Dr. Sidney Barrington Elliot says: "There 
are times and conditions when the birth of children is a wrong to the 
community. It is a wrong, either knowingly or ignorantly, to bring 
into the world, through no fault of its own, a being unhealthy and 
incomplete, only to suffer and die, or to live a life of misery and 
imperfection, and perpetuate the curse in succeeding generations. 



LARGE OR SMALL FAMILIES. 359 

Yet so much is this fact disregarded that one-half the human race 
perish in early childhood." 

Charles Darwin writes: " There is no exception to the rule that 
every organic being naturally increases at so high a rate that, if not 
destroyed, the earth would soon be covered by the progeny of a single 
pair. Even slow-breeding man has doubled in twenty-five years, and 
at this rate, in a few thousand years there would literally not be room 
for his progeny. ' ' 

Herbert Spencer writes: "If men's sympathies are left to work 
out naturally, without legal instrumentality, I hold that the general 
result would be that the inferior will be sufficiently helped to moder- 
ate and alleviate their miseries, but will not be sufficiently helped to 
enable them to multiply; and so the benefit will be achieved without 
the evil." 

John Stuart Mill wrote: "Every one has a right to live. We will 
suppose this granted. But no one has a right to bring children into 
life to be supported by others. . . . Little improvement can be 
expected in immorality until the producing too large families is 
regarded with the same feeling as drunkenness or other physical 
excesses." 

Professor Huxley wrote: "Let us be under no illusion, then. So 
long as unlimited multiplication goes on, no social organization which 
has ever been devised, or is likely to be devised, no fiddle-faddling 
with the distribution of wealth, will deliver society from the tendency 
to be destroyed by the reproduction within itself, in its intensest 
form, of that struggle for existence, the limitation of which is the 
object of society." 

A distinguished Italian, Professor Montegazza, says: "Hygiene has 
the most sacred right to say, in the name of science, to the consumptive, 
to the epileptic, the insane, the idiotic, the syphilitic, 'Love, but do 
not have offspring.' And political economy, which is merely a 
hygiene of society, ought to say to the poor man who has nothing to 
offer his children but want or the foundling hospital, 'Love, but do 
not have offspring.' " 

Dr. Geo. H. Napheys says: "On the one side are many worthy 
physicians and pious clergymen, who, without listening to any argu- 
ments, condemn every effort to avoid large families; on the other, are 



360 SOCIAL PURITY. 

numberless wives and husbands, who turn a deaf ear to the warnings 
of doctors and thunders of the divines, and, eager to escape a 
responsibility they have assumed, hesitate not to resort to the most 
dangerous and immoral means to accomplish their ends. . . . Let us 
first inquire whether there is such a thing as overproduction — having 
too many children. Unquestionably there is. . . . 'Two-thirds of 
all cases of womb disease,' says Dr. Tilit, 'are traceable to child- 
bearing in feeble women.' . . . Puny, sickly, short-lived offspring 
follows overproduction. . . . They come to over-burden a mother 
already overwhelmed with progeny. . . . Weakly herself, she brings 
forth weakly infants. When either parent suffers from a disease 
which is transmissible, and wishes to avoid inflicting misery on an 
unborn generation, it has been urged that they should avoid children. 
There are also women to whom pregnancy is a nine-months' torture, 
and others to whom it is nearly certain to prove fatal. ' ' 

We give a few short quotations from men of some note: 

"Very much indeed it is to be wished that the function of too rapid 
reproduction be placed under the dominion of the will." 

"If a woman has a right to decide on any question, it is certainly 
as to how many children she shall bear." 

"Certainly wives have a right to demand of their husbands at least 
the same consideration which a breeder extends to his stock." 

"Whenever it becomes unwise that the family should be increased, 
justice and humanity require that the husband should impose on him- 
self the same restraint which is submitted to by the unmarried. ' ' 

In order to check the number of offspring from persons afflicted 
with serious physical or mental diseases, it is proposed to require 
every one wishing to enter into legal matrimony to submit to a phys- 
ical examination by a competent practitioner, and to obtain from him 
a certificate of sound health, before the marriage ceremony can be 
performed. If each state in the Union would enact such a law, and 
successfully enforce it, great good to future generations would be the 
result; but the difficulty lies in the enforcement. 

It is also urged by some physicians of note that a certain simple 
and harmless surgical operation be performed on all male criminals, 
that would render them unable to have offspring, though not unsex- 
ing them. In this way the degenerate line might be cut short. 



LARGE OR SMALL FAMILIES. 361 

Doubtless the only practicable way of reaching the desirable end, is 
through the intelligence of the people. This is a very long road to 
final success, but it is the only hopeful one. 

We here rest the case as to size of families, and summarize the 
conditions as follows: 

First. There are some people who should have no offspring. The 
number, in the aggregate, is large, but relatively small. There are 
malformations of the would-be mother that render it impossible for 
her to bear children. All syphilitic persons, male or female, should 
bring no children into the world. Any person whose constitutional 
weakness, hereditary taints or prenatal influences would be trans- 
mitted to his or her offspring as a curse in the form of idiocy, disease 
or death, should not be a parent so long as these conditions last. 

Second. It seems that the weight of testimony is, that the wife, 
after due deliberation and consultation with the husband, should 
decide as to the number of offspring and the rapidity with which they 
are brought into the world. The testimony of those whose special 
training and observation make them best fitted to speak on the matter, 
is uniformly on the side of small families in some cases. Physical 
health of the parents and financial ability to care for their children 
should be deciding factors. 

Physical health of both parents and financial ability, together 
with reasonable mental endowments, are conditions which place 
parents otherwise fitted for parentage, under obligations to gather 
around themselves larger families than do their less fortunate neigh- 
bors. 

How to Limit the Number of Offspring. It seems clear from the 
foregoing discussion that there are some people who can not, or who 
ought not to have offspring. Also, it is equally clear that, for the 
welfare of the individual and of the race, others should be content 
with small families. There are few women, indeed, who are so robust 
that no restraint should be placed upon their child-bearing. Stock- 
breeders know better than to breed their animals to the fullest extent. 

Premeditated Abortion we have found to be dangerous, cruel, 
criminal, sinful, murder. This method, then, is not to be entertained 
for a moment. The one safe way, the only safe method of avoiding 
parentage, is perfect abstinence from sexual intercourse. There are, 

24 



362 SOCIAL PURITY. 

however, two principal objections to this plan. The standard of 
chastity is too high for the ordinary man to attain unto. Doubtless 
many do reach that lofty height, but what plan may be adopted that 
the ordinary man can follow? None that does not come under the 
will of man. The stockman breeds his animals according to his will. 
Why is it impossible for him to adopt the same method in the produc- 
tion of his own offspring? The second objection that may be urged 
against these lofty ideas, is that married life would be in danger of 
partaking too much of the icicle nature. 

A Safe Method. But there is a method, pure, chaste, innocent 
and in perfect harmony with nature and the Divine law. Here, too, 
self-restraint must play an important part; neither does it absolutely 
secure the wife from child-bearing, and it is well that it does not. 

We prefer to have physicians of high standing speak on this mat- 
ter. We first quote from Dr. Napheys: "The safeguard which 
nature has thrown out against overproduction is by constituting cer- 
tain periods of woman's life seasons of sterility. 

Periods of Sterility. "Before the age of puberty, during preg- 
nancy and after the change of life, they are always barren. During 
nursing most women are so, but not all. Some even continue their 
monthly change at this time. ... A so-called agenitic or sterile 
period exists between each monthly change, during the continuance 
of which it is not possible for the female to conceive. This branch 
of our subject has attracted much attention of late years from its prac- 
tical character, but the conclusions reached have so far not been as 
satisfactory as we could wish." 

Dr. Dalton, in his Human Physiology, says: "Intercourse is more 
liable to be followed by pregnancy when it occurs about the menstrual 
epoch than at other times. This fact was long since established as a 
matter of practical observation by practical obstetricians. The exact 
length of time, however, preceding and following the menses during 
which impregnation is still possible, has not been ascertained. The 
spermatic fluid, on the one hand, retains its vitality for an unknown 
period after coition, and the egg for an unknown period after its dis- 
charge. The precise extent of the limit of these occurrences is still 
uncertain, and is probably more or less variable in different individ- 
uals. ' ' 



LARGE OR SMALL FAMILIES. 363 

The Mosaic Law. It is well known that the Mosaic law in regard 
to ceremonial cleansing had a tendency to limit the number of off- 
spring. The husband was forbidden to have sexual intercourse with 
his wife while she was ceremonially "unclean," which was during her 
monthly periods, and for many days after childbirth. If the husband 
became "unclean" by disobeying these ceremonial laws, it was only 
after proper religious ceremonies that he could again come into the 
"congregation" — in other words, associate with the people. These 
requirements had a decidedly restraining effect upon those who would 
otherwise have allowed their passions to carry them into excess. 

"In the law which came by Moses, such restrictions and limita- 
tions were imposed as would naturally tend to conserve the physical 
strength of both men and women, thus training them in wisdom, tem- 
perance and self-control, and preserving them from many of the evils 
and infirmities which fall to the lot of those who transgress physical 
law. . . . 

"Under the Mosaic law (Leviticus xv, 18), no man could give 
himself up to habitual, sensual indulgence without making himself for 
the time a social outcast and debarring himself from the services of 
the sanctuary and the associations of common life, as a person whose 
very presence and touch was defilement, and who must perform the 
prescribed ablutions and ceremonies before he could again stand as 
an equal among the sons of Israel. 

"By another wise provision of this 'wonderful law,' the birth of a 
child rendered the mother tameh, or prohibited, for either forty or 
eighty days. . . . Such a provision as this could only have a most 
salutary effect upon a community, its tendency being to prevent an 
overproduction of ill-born and sickly children, avoid the dangers of 
overpopulation, and preserve the strength and vigor of the mothers 
in Israel." — H. L. Hastings, in The Wonderful Law. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE CLIMACTERIC PERIOD. 

Change of Life. Somewhere between the ages of forty and fifty 
years, at about the average of forty-five, all women experience a 
physical change, commonly known as the "change of life." At this 
time the menses cease to flow, and the woman can no longer hope or 
expect to become a mother; in short, she is now barren. The period 
of possible motherhood is from the age of fifteen to forty-five. During 
this change, whose effects may extend over several years, the woman 
is in a critical period of life; physically, it is often a dangerous period, 
through which, if she passes safely, she may reasonably expect an 
extension of life in the enjoyment of health and mental vigor. To 
many women this is a welcome change — a very oasis in a desert of 
care — especially so if child-bearing and the anxieties of motherhood 
have borne heavily upon her vital energies, or if hers has been a life 
of suffering through diseases common to womankind. 

We mention these facts in this connection for two reasons-^first, 
as a warning to the husband, and second, as a preliminary statement 
in the discussion of this chapter. 

During this critical stage, when certain organs are resting from 

their labor and a physiological change is going on, the husband should 

be very watchful and careful of his wife's health and comfort. This 

change may be the continuation of a life of misery whose end is the 

grave; or it may be the beginning of a glorious afternoon of life, 

whose western skies shall be all aglow with the radiant tints of a 

beautiful sunset. 

"At evening time it shall be light." 

Undue care, severe labor, anxiety, mental worry should all be 
lifted from her shoulders until robust health is fully re-established. This 
is a time when solicitous care on the part of the husband is repaid a 
thousand fold. 

A New Lease on Life. All this is especially emphasized in con- 
nection with the sexual relation. Again, the husband should become 

364 



THE CLIMACTERIC PERIOD. 365 

the lover in his attentions. Let the wife have her way until the new 
lease upon life is duly signed and sealed, that is, until health is fully 
recovered. 

Change of Life in Men. Most men in the prime of life do not 
know, or, at least, do not realize that man experiences a change similar 
to that of woman. The change is not so marked, nor so manifest to 
the senses. In man the change comes about fifteen years later than 
in woman, say from fifty to sixty-five, with an average of about sixty- 
two years of age. It is, perhaps, more gradual than in woman. Man, 
in middle life, notes the fact that his sexual desires are not so frequent 
as in former days, nor are they so intense. 

Examinations of semen in men from sixty to eighty years of age 
disclose the following interesting and suggestive facts: secretions of 
semen do take place in even aged men; spermatozoa are found in the 
semen of some old men, but they are less numerous and more dormant 
than in younger men. 

To men who have struggled to live in the higher plane of human 
existence, who have valiantly fought a life battle for personal purity, 
the knowledge that there is an end to the struggle, or at least a battle 
less fierce, comes as a welcome guest to the inner man. Such an 
experience, coming gradually, as it does, into the lives of men of vir- 
tue bought with the price of hardly-won self-denial, is as the quiet 
which follows the storm. 

The Testimony of Wise Men. Sophocles, the old Greek poet, 
when asked by a friend how he felt as to the pleasures of love, 
replied: "Softly, friend, most gladly, indeed, have I escaped from 
these pleasures, as from some furious and savage master. ' ' When 
Cicero, the Roman orator, was asked if he still indulged in sensual 
gratifications, he replied: "Heaven forbid 1 I have foresworn it as I 
would a savage and a furious master." 

These and similar testimonies are attributed also to other great 
men of antiquity. Such statements from wise and brave men, because 
they vibrate in harmony with the experience and sympathy of those 
of lesser note, will be repeated through the ages, and become living 
maxims. 

An old veteran, who has courageously endured hardships and 
bravely fought for his loved country in many a desperate conflict, 



366 SOCIAL PURITY. 

feels a thrill of joy when about to receive an honorable discharge. 
So it is with a pure-minded man who has fought many a battle for 
purity, though, perhaps, sometimes defeated, as he now enjoys repose 
and rest when the battle wanes. 

To men who have lived on the low plane of sexual gratification, 
whose desires are little above those of the lower animals, whose high- 
est enjoyment has been fused with sensualism, the realization that 
this form of pleasure has an end, comes as a shock. 

Some even prefer death to a life devoid of this gratification and 
have ended life rather than to endure it. Many men fail to realize 
that this change is a natural one and common to all who live to an 
advanced age. They are not informed that the sexual life of the 
human family continues till the climacteric, when the balance between 
tissue waste and restoration is disarranged, and that from this point 
both man and woman are again sexless from a physiological basis. 
They, therefore, become despondent, thinking life not worth the liv- 
ing when this form of enjoyment ceases. Such men have not grasped 
the thought that the sexual life is but the pleasing means to a great 
end designed by a wise Creator. 

Dr. J. F. Scott says concerning this change: "With the comple- 
tion of the functions of sperm-formation by the male, and of ovula- 
tion, or egg-formation, by the female, their sexual lives become for- 
ever closed. Such is the history of life! At first a neuter; then a 
rapid growth and development of the body with sexuality as the dis- 
tinguishing and fashioning feature; then the maturation and expan- 
sion of the physical and psychical endowments; then the reproductive 
period, followed by that of quiescence and old age, when 

"... Years steal 
Fire from the mind, as vigor from the limb, 
And life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim." 

In Foster's Text-Book of Physiology, we find this statement of the 
general law: "When the animal kingdom is surveyed from a broad 
standpoint, it becomes obvious that the ovum, or its correlative, the 
spermatozoon, is the goal of an individual existence; that life is a 
cycle beginning in an ovum and coming round to an ovum again. 
The greater part of the actions which, looking from a near point of 



THE CLIMACTERIC PERIOD. 367 

view at the higher animals alone, we are apt to consider as eminently 
the purposes for which animals come into existence, when viewed 
from the distant outlook whence the whole living world is surveyed, 
fade away into the likeness of the mere by-play of ovum-bearing 
organisms. The animal body is in reality a vehicle for ova; and after 
the life of the parent has become potentially renewed in the offspring, 
the body remains as a cast-off envelope whose future is but to die." 

Physicians tell us that men are subject to physiological changes in 
the sexual system similar to those of women which are known com- 
monly as ''change of life." Dr. Lyman Sperry informs us, in his 
instructive book, Husband and Wife, that "Men do undergo a decided 
change near the threshold of old age, and sometimes it is just as 
marked as that which takes place in women ; but, as a rule, the loss of 
sexual appetite and power experienced by males is more gradual and 
not nearly so definite as the change experienced by most females. 
Some students of the phenomenon of sexual decline in males call it a 
'change of life,' and assert that it is attended with almost as much 
physical disaster and danger as the corresponding epoch in the physical 
life of woman." 

Dr. Hollick says in this connection: "At this period man is most 
exposed to those maladies which have their seat in the bladder and 
connected portions of the body. Gravel and stone, difficulty in reliev- 
ing the organ, affections of the kidney and swelling of the glandular 
structures make their appearance. So, too, it is about this epoch 
that gout, chronic rheumatism, plethora, vertigo and apoplexy are 
frequent. It may indeed be doubted if these various signs of 
approaching decrepitude are any more clearly connected with the 
change which takes place in the sexual organs, than are the grayness 
and baldness, the dimness of sight, the quavering and broken voice 
and uncertainty of muscular movements which are associated with 
them. But certain it is that the association is a most intimate one, 
and we are perfectly justified in saying that virility is a test of the 
general physical powers, and if it is preserved in a healthy and vigor- 
ous condition, these signs of advancing age can be long postponed." 

Dr. Parise, a French authority, says: "It is usually at the age of 
fifty or sixty that the genitive function becomes weakened. It is at 
this period that man y elevated to the sacred character of paternity, 



368 SOCIAL PURITY. 

and proud of his virile power, begins to mane tha , power decrease, 
and does so almost with a feeling of indignation. The first step 
toward feebleness announces to him, unmistakably, that he is no 
longer the man he was. He may retard the effect up to a certain point, 
but not entirely. This law must have its free and entire execution. 
The activity of the genitive organs diminishes, their functions abate, 
languish and then cease entirely. The wish and the want are no 
longer one and the same thing; the imagination does not exercise its 
olden power and fascination on these organs. . . . The semen, that 
peculiar secretion of the blood, is not only less abundant, but has lost 
its consistence and its force. The animalcule, zoosperms, which 
constitute its nature or its essence, far from being as numerous or 
active as formerly, are, on the contrary, few and languid." 

Cardinal Maury is reported to have told the celebrated Portal that 
"a man of sense, past fifty, ought to give up the pleasures of love, 
for every time he indulged in them he threw on his head a handful of 
earth." Or, as another puts it, "He drives a nail into his coffin. " 

"It is possible for old men to beget children; the presence of the 
spermatozoa proves this. But all medical authorities on this subject 
clearly demonstrate that old men should not beget children." 

Dr. Acton says: "Such men have children, but experience teaches 
us that these infants are difficult to rear; they are not the best speci- 
mens of the English race. Too many are of a nervous, irritable 
frame, their intellectual qualities are not equal to those of the father, 
and they suffer as they progress in life from affections of the brain 
and nervous system. . . . We are forced therefore to the conclusion 
that the children of old men have an inferior chance in life." 

The Nervous System of Old Men. The nervous system of men in 
advanced years is most susceptible to the influences of disorders of 
the sexual organs. There is much danger to the vital forces of the 
aged from the slightest approach to excess. In this connection we 
again refer to Dr. Parise: "One great purpose pervades the creation, 
to live and to impart life. If men will conform to the laws of 
nature, they must submit themselves to conditions of existence and of 
organization, and learn to limit their desires within the sphere of their 
real wants. If they will do so, wisdom and health will bloom of 
themselves and abide without effort; but all this is too often forgotten 



THE CLIMACTERIC PERIOD. 369 

when the functions of generation are in question. This sublime gift 
of transmitting life, at once the mastery of morality, by means of 
family ties, and the powerful cause of depravity, the energetic spring 
of life and health, the causeless source of disease and infirmity, this 
faculty involves almost all that man can attain of earthly happiness 
or misfortune, of earthly pleasure, or of pain; and the tree of knowl- 
edge of good and evil is the symbol of it, as true as it is expressive. 

"Thus, even love, by its excesses, hastens and abets the inevitable 
doom for which, in the first instance by the aid of passion, it had pro- 
vided the victims. The greater part of mankind, however, show 
excessive feebleness in withstanding the abuse of genitive functions; 
and what surprises us most is, that those advanced in life are not 
always the least exposed to this reproach. It is certain that in old 
age, at a time when the passions have given way to reason, there are 
still many individuals who allow themselves to stray imprudently to 
the very precipitous edge of these dangerous enjoyments. They 
applaud themselves for postponing moderation till it is rather forced 
than voluntary; till they stop from sheer want of vigor. Nature, 
pitiless as she is, will cause them most certainly to pay dearly for the 
transgression of her laws; and the steady accumulation of diseases 
soon gives demonstrative proof of it. The result is the more certain 
and prompt, inasmuch as in these cases excesses are almost always of 
old standing. 

"The libertine in years has usually been dissolute in youth and 
manhood, so that we may trace the progress and calculate the extent 
of his organic deterioration. . . . Reduced to the pleasures of recol- 
lection, at once passionate and impotent, their sensuality may kill, 
but can not satiate. There are such old libertines who are constantly 
seeking after the means of revivifying their withered, used-up organ- 
isms, as if that were possible without imminent danger. The law of 
nature is without appeal. To submit to it is the result of great good 
judgment, and the reward is speedy. But submission is not the gen- 
eral rule, and persons of prudence and chastity have but faint concep- 
tions of the devices to evade it." 

The physician alone knows from a long experience, or from the 
confession of his patients, to what depths of corruption men will 
descend, and the long train of evils which follow. Men who have 



370 SOCIAL PURITY. 

lived all their lives in a lower story, do not in old age seek more ele- 
vated living rooms. How about those who have lived in a better, 
purer sexual atmosphere? Without question, all men regret the loss 
of any manly power whatever. By the very nature of man, ordained 
by God, it must be so. But in the case of the loss of sexual power, 
either partly or wholly, in those whose ambition has been to live a 
pure life, after the first flush of regret, there steals over the conscious- 
ness a feeling of satisfaction, a rest, as from a long and arduous piece 
of work which has tasked one's strength to the utmost. 

The Reward. There is a compensation to such men in the fact 
that now the mind is left clear for higher and nobler pursuits. Sex- 
ualism no longer fascinates and hampers thought. If the habits have 
been virtuous, the life pure, the mind is yet unimpaired, more cau- 
tious and conservative, it may be, yet vigorous and clear. The 
decline of the sexual powers in either man or woman does not neces- 
sarily include the loss of general health or happiness or mental ability. 
Any and all of these may be retained to an extreme age. Gladstone, 
Bryant and numerous literary men are examples of those whose mental 
faculties did not decrease with advancing years. 

It is not unusual for physicians to be consulted by elderly men in 
regard to the loss of sexual power. If this loss be a symptom of a 
diseased condition of the system, physicians may be able by proper 
treatment to 'remedy the defect by treating the disease. But if the 
loss of virility be but the manifestation of natural laws, it is the height 
of folly to seek to stimulate the flagging powers. A noted physician 
says: "Every sexual expenditure of an elderly man is a clod dropped 
on his coffin." Every effort to stimulate the waning powers is a whip 
cut for the lazy sexual jade. Let the jade take his time. It will 
lengthen the number of his days. 

There are many disorders common to elderly men, one of which is 
somewhat troublesome, namely, the enlargement of the prostate 
gland. This gland is situated near the outlet of the bladder. Its 
office is to secrete a part of the semen. The testes secrete the sper- 
matozoa, the vital principle, but the secretions of the prostate gland 
form a float for the spermatozoa from the testes. The secretions of 
these two glands unite with that of another small gland, called Cow- 
per's gland, and form the semen. By the enlargement of the prostate 



THE CLIMACTERIC PERIOD. 371 

gland, the urethra, the channel through which the urine flows from 
the bladder, is more or less compressed, thus obstructing the urinary 
flow. Most, if not all, old men have more or less difficulty in urinat- 
ing, caused by the enlargement of the prostate gland. There is an 
impression that this difficulty is due to the over-sexual indulgence of 
the patient in earlier years. 

While it may be true that the over-indulgence of the sexual powers 
is a cause, it is not the only cause. Horseback riding, the immoder- 
ate use of the bicycle and other exercises of a violent nature may 
also produce the enlargement of this gland and its consequent diffi- 
culty in urinating. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

VENTILATION. 

General Statements. It is a fact well known to most intelligent 
people that there are poisonous exhalations from the body even of 
people in perfect health. Matter that has done its work in supply- 
ing the body with material for growth and strength must be thrown 
off when it has accomplished its purpose. When it is not promptly 
and properly excreted, we become languid and feeble; we are sick 
and diseased. 

Why We Eat. We eat in order to supply the drain of this con- 
stant waste. Life is the result of keeping up the equilibrium of waste 
and repair. We place fuel in the stove and apply a lighted match. 
The oxygen of the air then unites with the fuel, producing combus- 
tion and heat. Neither the fuel nor the air is poisonous to man, but 
the result of the combustion, the gas that escapes through the chim- 
ney, though food and life to the plant, is a deadly poison to the ani- 
mal. The food we eat is the fuel of the body, and the oxygen in the 
air we breathe, uniting with the fuel of our bodies, produces combus- 
tion and heat. Thus are we warmed and nourished. Heat is life; 
cold is death. When one starves, he grows cold. Death occurs when 
the supply either of fuel (food) or of oxygen ceases. 

Air Limitless. By the sweat of the brow do we earn our bread; 
but the supply of pure air is limitless, and can be had for the taking. 
No trust has the power to restrict its use. It is a free gift to man- 
kind from a boundless source. And yet men do not always take this 
free gift so generously provided, largely because of want of informa- 
tion of the evil effects of vitiated air. Others are intellectually per- 
suaded that it is injurious to health to breathe worn-out air, but are 
not sufficiently aroused to the facts concerning its bad effects upon the 
system. Or, perhaps, they are puzzled to know how to substitute 
pure, warm air for the foul, re-used air of our homes and public build- 
ings. We do not hesitate to say that the sickness and suffering from 
the lack of pure, life-giving air is but little less than that endured 

372 



VENTILATION. 373 

from want of food. Hunger is painful, but no more deadly than con- 
taminated air when taken into the lungs. Before we enter into the 
discussion of the needs and methods of ventilation, let us correct some 
erroneous notions into which thoughtless people have fallen. 

First. The temperature of the air has nothing whatever to do 
with its purity. Many people assume that cold air is necessarily pure. 
No, death is just as liable to lurk in cold air as in warm. Warm air 
sometimes seems more oppressive than does cold air, not because it 
is impure, but because the radiation of heat from the body is some- 
what retarded and the heat is thus retained in the body, which causes 
the depressed feeling. From the same law of radiation, we become 
cold if the heat from the body is too rapidly radiated. 

Second. It is supposed by many that the foul air of a room rises 
to the top, and for that reason the purer part of the air lies near the 
floor. If there is any difference the conditions are the reverse, the 
foul air being near the floor. But there is practically but little differ- 
ence in the purity of the atmosphere of an ordinary room. By the 
law known as the diffusion of gases, the nitrogen, oxygen, carbonic 
dioxide, watery vapor and any other form of gas composing the air 
are found equally distributed to all parts of the room. 

Carbonic Dioxide. The most common poison found in an ordinary 
room (and it is always present even in the most pure air) is carbonic 
dioxide, commonly known as carbonic acid gas. This is one and a 
half times as heavy as air, hence it would naturally settle to the bot- 
tom of a room were it not for the law of diffusion of gases. When 
found in large quantities it does sometimes follow the law of gravita- 
tion to some extent and settle to the lower strata of air. We suspect 
that the second error named above grows out of the first, viz., that cold 
air is purer than warm air, for it is well known that the warmer air 
rises to the top of the room. 

The heat of the body is caused by combustion in its tissues. Oxy- 
gen enters into the lungs, passes by means of the blood to the capil- 
laries, where it unites chemically with either hydrogen or carbon; 
each of which is a waste product of the body, or a part of the food- 
fuel stored in the system. The chemical union of oxygen and hydro- 
gen forms water, a harmless product. The chemical combination of 
oxygen and carbon is carbonic dioxide, a gas, which, if inhaled in 



374 SOCIAL PURITY. 

sufficient quantities, is fatal to life. Expired breath is therefore 
unfitted for further use in sustaining life. 

Black Hole of Calcutta. To emphasize this statement, we re-state 
the oft-told story of the ' ' Black Hole of Calcutta. ' ' A nabob of India, 
having captured a number of British soldiers, confined one hundred 
and forty-six of them in a room twenty feet square, with but two 
small windows through which to get air. During the first night one 
hundred and twenty-three died from suffocation. The survivors were 
saved by being removed in the morning. 

A friend of the writer had a large number of chickens, the product 
of an incubator. In order to keep them snug and warm one cold 
night, he put them in a small space with insufficient ventilation. It 
proved a veritable "Black Hole" to the chicks, as many of them were 
found dead the next morning. 

Another friend, in his effort to improve upon the heating apparatus 
of his incubator, failed to make the lamp burn in a closed box. The 
chicks and the lamp flame both died from the same cause, want of 
sufficient oxygen to sustain combustion. 

A simple experiment, showing that air coming from the lungs of 
perfectly healthy people will not sustain life, may be made by means 
of a lighted taper. In order to make the experiment a striking suc- 
cess, the air should be retained in the lungs a short time before expel- 
ling it; in that case the light will be entirely extinguished. Remove 
the air from a common fruit jar; then fill it with air exhaled from the 
lungs. Into this place the lighted taper and note the result. The 
experiment shows, in short, that the air taken into the lungs is not the 
same as the air breathed out. No animal can live where a taper will 
not burn. Though the results of contaminated air are not seen 
immediately, great injury is done continually to the health of multi- 
tudes by the accumulation of carbonic acid gas in small rooms and 
crowded public buildings. 

It is estimated that 4 'a congregation of twelve hundred people throw 
off from their lungs in two hours an amount of this gas that contains 
seventy-five pounds of charcoal. " And yet but little provision is made 
to get rid of this vast quantity of poisonous substance, and to put in 
its place pure air so greatly needed. It is also estimated by scientists 
that each person ought to have at least eight hundred cubic feet of 



VENTILATION. 375 

space to himself, this. space to be constantly supplied with pure air, 
not omitting provision for the escape of foul air. We wonder how 
many school-rooms, churches and public buildings would answer this 
estimate of our necessities! 

Amount of Pure Air Required. Carbonic acid gas is found in 
small quantities in the atmosphere — about four parts in ten thousand 
(4:10,000) of pure air. This small amount is sufficient for the food 
of plant life, but not enough to be harmful to animals. Though all 
forms of animal life are constantly giving off carbonic dioxide, the 
quantity in the atmosphere never increases, as the plants take it up 
as fast as produced, thus keeping up an equilibrium. 

In making the following computations, the amount of carbonic acid 
gas found in the atmosphere is ignored, and the excess only is taken 
into account. The amount of air exhaled in a given time varies some- 
what among individuals, and it also varies in the same person at 
different times. 

The following figures, therefore, must be taken with a good deal of 
latitude; exact figures can not be given. This estimate will be suffi- 
ciently accurate, however, for our purpose, which is largely a matter 
of illustration. 

About three hundred and eighty (380) cubic feet of air is the aver- 
age amount an adult will breathe in twenty-four hours. Twenty-one 
per cent, of this, or eighty (80) cubic feet, is oxygen, the vital prin- 
ciple of the air. This eighty cubic feet of oxygen passes into the 
lungs, but only about sixty-five cubic feet will pass_/>w/z the lungs as 
pure oxygen, the other fifteen cubic feet being carbonic dioxide 
(CO2), a chemical combination of oxygen and carbon. This, remem- 
ber, is for twenty-four hours; in one hour, it will be seen that five- 
eighths ( s /s) of a cubic foot of carbonic acid gas is exhaled. 

Ventilation Required for Bedrooms. A bedroom ten feet by 
eleven, and nine feet high (10x11x9) contains nearly one thousand 
(1,000) cubic feet of air. An adult breathing that air for one hour 
would throw off five-eighths (Vs) of a cubic foot of carbonic acid gas, 
a little more than six parts in ten thousand (6:10,000). Now, two 
parts in ten thousand parts (2:10,000) of carbonic acid gas, in excess 
of that already found in nature, is considered injurious to health. By 
this it will be seen that the air should be changed three times during 



376 SOCIAL PURITY. 

one hour in order that it be kept in a healthful condition. During the 
eight hours of sleep, it should be changed twenty-four times. 

A bedroom thirteen feet square and nine feet high contains a little 
more than fifteen hundred (1,500) cubic feet of air. This, as bed- 
rooms average, is quite large. Now, according to the figures given 
above, the air of the room, with one occupant, should be renewed 
twice each hour, or sixteen times during the eight hours of rest. If 
two occupy the room, it should be renewed four times an hour. 

These conclusions are based upon the supposition that two parts 
of carbonic acid gas in ten thousand parts of pure air (2:10,000) in 
excess of that already found in the air, is harmful. Now, let us place 
the amount at twice as much, giving us four parts in ten thousand 
(4:10,000) parts. Nature has four parts, and respiration another four 
parts, giving us eight parts of carbonic dioxide in ten thousand parts 
of pure air (8:10,000). This amount is unquestionably injurious to 
man. Under these conditions the larger bedroom given above, with 
two occupants, requires a complete change of air sixteen times during 
the sleeping hours. It is doubtful if many bedrooms meet even these 
conditions during cold weather. 

Taking the same conditions as a basis, namely, four parts in ten 
thousand in excess of nature's supply, let us see the results in large 
assemblies of people. An audience of five hundred persons, each 
having one thousand cubic feet of air, should receive a fresh supply of 
air every forty minutes; with five hundred cubic feet for each auditor, 
the air should be renewed every twenty minutes. Five hundred per- 
sons with five hundred cubic feet of space each would require an audi- 
torium of two hundred fifty thousand (250,000) cubic feet. Such a 
room would be one hundred feet square and twenty-five feet high. 
It is safe to say that few auditoriums have the ratio of five hundred 
cubic feet to an auditor, especially when filled to its capacity. Fewer 
still are supplied with fresh air at the rate of a renewal every twenty 
minutes during cold weather. 

These figures show how far we are behind the demands of science 
in the matter of preserving health. Even some architects seem not to 
have learned the rudiments of ventilation. 

Sanitation has made great strides during the last half century, but 
ventilation, especially in the homes of the masses, lags behind. With 



VENTILATION. 377 

the old-fashioned fireplace, ventilation took care of itself, the fireplace 
being a natural ventilator. When stoves were introduced, no substitute 
for the fireplace was prepared. But while nature is cold, she is kind. 

During winter weather the air will creep into a room through every 
cranny, crevice, keyhole, crack, doorway and window. In the lan- 
guage of another, "We do not know how much we are indebted to 
poor carpenter work for giving us fresh air, when we would otherwise 
have shut it out." During cold weather nature does what she can 
toward giving us God's free air, but in warm weather she seems pas- 
sive, thinking perhaps we have sense enough to help ourselves by 
throwing open the windows. 

Many will hesitate to accept these startling conclusions, claiming 
that they have slept in bedrooms all their lives with but a fraction of 
the ventilation necessary as shown by the foregoing figures, without 
being conscious of receiving any harm. But the objectors do not know 
how much of their vitality has been sapped by bad air. Those dull 
headaches, that dizziness, the languor that is felt in the morning on 
rising from a supposed night's rest, are, in most cases, due to blood 
poison through breathing bad air. We do not know to what extent 
our lives may be shortened or how much misery has been caused by 
this poison in the blood, for it does not kill at once. People are 
asphyxiated by escaping gas from a stove, and perhaps in the morning 
are found dead in bed. The process is identical with that from foul 
air made so by breathing, the poison in each case being carbonic acid 
gas, the difference being simply a matter of time; one kills slowly, 
the other immediately. 

But we have told only a part of the story. Lights and fires in 
which there is combustion, with its results escaping into the room, 
exhaust the oxygen more rapidly than breathing. Gas jets and kero- 
sene lamps are especially bad. Thanks to our electric lighting, this 
evil is fast passing away. Again, exhalations from the skin and other 
excretory organs also poison the air even in health. But add to that 
the exhalations from catarrh and other diseases, we have a case that 
ought to startle even careless people into making some provisions for 
proper ventilation. 

How to Ventilate. The simplest process of ventilation is to throw 
open doors and windows; nature will do the rest. During warm 

25 



378 SOCIAL PURITY. 

weather this process meets all the conditions admirably, provided, 
however, that all direct drafts are avoided. But the matter of drafts 
on the person must be attended to or serious results will follow. 
Death lurks in a draft of air striking any part of the body. Thou- 
sands of lives yearly pay the penalty of carelessness in this matter. 

The real difficulty of ventilation presents itself in cold weather when 
the problem of heating must also be solved. It seems anomalous that 
many architects pay no attention to ventilation in preparing plans for 
an ordinary dwelling-house. In all first-class modern school-buildings 
in our large cities, the problem of heating and ventilating has been 
solved in a fairly satisfactory manner. 

Hot-Air Furnace. A properly constructed hot-air furnace placed in 
a properly arranged building may be made to meet all the conditions 
more readily, perhaps, than by any other system. Hot water or steam 
may also be arranged satisfactorily, but in dwelling-houses they are 
not usually so arranged. Direct radiation by stoves, hot-water or steam 
pipes warms a room in the following manner: first, by the direct radi- 
ating surface of the stove or pipes; second, by convection. The air 
of the room pressing against the heated surface becomes warm (hence 
lighter) and is pushed up by the colder air, thus causing a circulation 
of the air of the room, with the heated surface of the stove or pipes 
as the center of influence. 

By either of these methods of heating the matter of ventilation is 
usually ignored, and the only way of ventilating is by doors or win- 
dows, or by some arrangement which acts on the same principle as the 
open window. 

The following is the principle used in up-to-date school-buildings, 
a few other public buildings and in some dwelling-houses: Fresh air 
from without is passed by means of a conduit through the furnace (or 
through coils of steam pipes) into the room, and displaces the cold, 
impure air of the room. But as the room is already full of air, how 
can it be made to give place to the fresh air from without? If an 
opening from the room be made directly into the open air outside (by 
open window or by some other device), the cold air will push its way 
into the room, which defeats the plan. If the opening for the exit air 
be made at or near the top of the room, the warm, pure air will pass 
out, leaving most of the cold, foul air near the floor in the room. In 



VENTILATION. 379 

order, then, to get rid of the cold, used-up air the exit opening must 
be as near to the floor as possible, the region of coldest air, as a simple 
test by the thermometer will show. But this air will not pass out 
unless coaxed out or driven out. Rapidly revolving fans may be used 
to force the warm air into the room, and push the cold air out near 
the floor. Although this plan is successfully used in public buildings, 
it is not practicable for ordinary dwelling-houses. 

How may it be coaxed ovA?. The main chimney of the house should 
be made double, one flue for smoke, and the other for foul air from 
the rooms. Cold-air ducts leading from each room into the foul-air 
flue of the chimney should be arranged. The air in the foul-air flue 
will be warmed by the smoke flue, causing the foul air to rise, because 
of this warmth, hence lightness, the air in the rooms will force its 
way up the foul-air flue. Or, putting it in common language, the air 
of the rooms is "drawn out" through the openings near the floor. It 
should be remembered that the foul-air flue must in some way be 
warmed. If left cold, it will not work satisfactorily. This is known 
as the "coaxing" method, and may be made a perfect success in dwell- 
ing-houses, as well as in public buildings. 

Most houses supplied with a furnace use the plan outlined above 
in bringing the air into the room, but make no provision for removing 
the old, cold, foul air from the rooms except by open windows or 
doors. Most buildings so arranged return the air of the rooms through 
the furnace, thus reheating it. But this process heats the room, but 
does not ventilate it, any more than by the stove method of heating. 
It does not purify the air to pass it through the furnace. The only 
fresh air received creeps in through the cold-air conduit, the open 
windows and doors, keyholes and the like. Let it be clearly under- 
stood that ventilating and heating is exchanging warm, pure air of a 
room for the cold, impure air of the same. Reheating old air is not 
ventilation; neither is admitting fresh air through windows heating it. 
All cold air admitted through windows must either be driven out of 
the room, or passed through the furnace and heated, before the room 
can be made warm. 

Steam and Hot-Water Heating. The ordinary methods of steam 
or hot-water heating make no provision for ventilation. ^ut by 
arranging coils of pipe in such a manner as to have the cold, fresh air 



416* SOCIAL PURITY. 

from without pass through the coils before entering the room, ventila- 
tion can be accomplished as in the method by furnace, as given above. 
This method, as well as that by furnace, is known as heating by indi- 
rect radiation; by stoves and steam pipes in a room, as direct radia- 
tion. Direct radiation means no systematic ventilation. Indirect 
radiation should give perfect ventilation. 



* Thirty-six pages are here added to include the full-page half-tone engravings and other 
pages not before folioed. 



A Glossary of Medical Terms 

pound in this and other bool^s of the K'nd. 



Ab-do'men— The lower front part of the 
body. 

Ab-nor'mal — Unnatural; unhealthy. 

A-bor'tion — A premature birth; a mis- 
carriage. 

A-brade' — To rub, or scrape off. 

A-bra'sion — The act of rubbing off the 
skin. 

Ab'scess — A cavity containing pus. 

Ab-sorp'tion — The act of sucking up; 
the process of being absorbed. 

Ac-couche'ment (a-koosh'ment) — Deliv- 
ery in childbed; confinement. 

Ac-cou-cheur' (a-koo-shur') — A profes- 
sional assistant at childbirth. 

A-cet'ic — Sour; having the properties of 
vinegar. 

A-cid 'i-ty — Sourness. 

Ac'rid — Biting; irritating. 

A-cute' — Sharp; a disease of short dura- 
tion. 

A-dapt'ive — Capable of being made 
suitable. 

Ad-i-pose'— Consisting of fat; fatty. 

Ad-o-les'cence — The age between child- 
hood and manhood — from about the 
age of fourteen to twenty-one. 

Ad-ja'cent — Lying near to; adjoining. 

A-dult' — A person of full age._ 

Af-fa'sion — The act of pouring water 
upon the whole or a part of the body 
as a remedy. 

A'gent — The active cause of a medicinal 
drug. 

Al-bQ'men — An animal substance, of 
which the white of an egg is a good 
example. 

Al-bu'min-ous — Containing albumen. 

Al-bu-mi-nu'ri-a — The presence of albu- 
men in the urine, or the morbid con- 
ditions causing it. 

Al'i-ment — Any kind of food. 

Al-i-ment'a-ry ca-nal' — The whole di- 
gestive system through which the 
food passes until it reaches the blood. 



Al'ter-a-tive — A medicine which gradu- 
ally restores healthy action. 

A-me'li-o-rate — To make better; to im- 
prove. 

A-me'na-ble— Yielding to. 

A-men-or-rhe'a — Suppression or ab- 
sence of the menses. 

A-mor'phous — Irregular; abnormal; ex- 
ceptional. 

A-nat'o-my — Physical structure of any 
body. 

A-ne'mi-a — Deficiency of blood, or of 
the red corpuscles in the blood. 

An-es-thet'ics — Medicines depriving one 
of sensation and suffering. 

An'eu-rism — A soft pulsating tumor 
caused by the enlargement or rup- 
ture of an artery. 

An-i-mal'cule — A very small animal; 
often so small as to be invisible to 
the naked eye. 

An'o-dyne — A medicine that relieves 
pain, as an opiate. 

Ant-ac'id — A remedy to remove acidity 
of the stomach. 

An-tag-o-nis'tic — Counteracting; oppo- 
site. 

An'te — A prefex meaning before. 

An-te-na'tal — Before birth. 

An-te'ri-or — Situated in front of. 

An'ti — A prefix- meaning opposite of or 
opposed to. 

An'ti-dote— A medicine counteracting 
poison. 

An-ti-e-met'ic — That which will stop 
vomiting. 

An-ti-sep'tic — Anything that prevents, 
retards or stops putrefaction. 

An-ti-spas-mod'ics — Medicines that pre- 
vent or tend to prevent cramps or 
spasms. 

An-ti-syph-i-lit'ic — A remedy supposed 
to cure syphilis. 

A'nus — The circular opening or outlet of 
the bowels. 



417 



418 



A GLOSSARY OF MEDICAL TERMS. 



A-or'ta — The great artery of the heart. 

A-pe'ri-ent — A laxative; a gently purga- 
tive medicine. 

Ap'er-ture — An opening. 

A'pex — The point of anything. 

Ap'pe-tite — Any physical craving. 

A'qua— Water. 

A'qua am-mo'ni-a — Water of ammonia. 

A-re'o-la — The circle around the nipple. 

Ar-o-mat'ic — Spicy and fragrant drugs. 

Ar-tic'u-lat-ed — Jointed. 

As'pect — Appearance; looks. 

As-sim-i-la'tion — The conversion of 
food by digestion into building ma- 
terial of the body. 

As-trin'gent — That which causes con- 
traction or the drawing together of 
the soft tissues of the body, thus 
checking the flow of blood, secre- 
tions and other discharges of the 
body; opposite of laxative. 

At'a-vism — A tendency to return to any 
ancestral deformity or disease after 
its having disappeared for one or 
more generations. 

At'o-ny — Want of tone; weakness. 

At'ro-phy — A wasting away from defect 
of nourishment. 

Au'ri-cle — The external ear; a cavity of 
the heart. 

Aux-il'ia-ry — That which helps or 
assists. 

Ax-il'la— The armpit. 

Bac-te'ri-a — Minute organisms. While 
most are harmless, some cause dis- 
ease and are the cause of putrefaction. 

Balm — An aromatic and fragrant med- 
icine, usually an ointment. 

Bal'sam — A resinous substance ob- 
tained from a tree, and possessing 
healing properties. 

Be-nign' (be-nm') — Favorable to health. 

Bi-cus'pid — Two-pointed, as a tooth. 

Bile — A secretion from the liver. 

Bil'ious — Too much bile in the system. 

Bron'chi-a (bron'ki-a) — Branches of the 
wind-pipe. 

Bron-chl'tis — Inflammation of the 
bronchial tubes. 

Bur'row-ing — The working or lodging of 
pus between the muscles. 

Cal-ca're-ous — Pertaining to stone or 
gravel, as found in the bladder, gall- 
ducts or kidneys. 



Cal'cu-lus — A stone as found in the 
bladder, gall-ducts and kidneys. 

Cal'i-ber — The size of any tube. 

Cal'lous — A hard, bony growth. 

Cap'il-la-ries — Hair-like vessels that 
convey the blood from the arteries 
to the veins. 

Cap'sule — A hollow case into which 
nauseous medicine is placed. 

Car-bon'ic ac'id — The gas expelled from 
the lungs when breathing. 

Car-bon'ic di-ox'ide — Same as carbonic 
acid. 

Car'di-ac — Relating to the heart. 

Car'til-age— A smooth, light, elastic 
substance, less firm than bone. 

Cas'trate— To remove the sexual germ- 
bearing glands from an animal. Man 
thus becomes a eunuch. 

Ca-tarrh' (ka-tar') — An unusual flow of 
the secretion of the mucous mem- 
brane caused by the inflammation of 
that membrane. 

Ca-thar'tic — An active purgative. 

Cath'e-ter — A small, flexible tube used 
to empty the bladder. 

Caus'tic — A corroding or destroying 
substance. 

Cau'ter-ize — To burn a diseased part 
out by some caustic substance. 

Cel'lu-lar — Composed of cells. 

Cel'lu-lar tis'sue — The main tissues of 
the body. 

Cer'e-bral— Pertaining to the brain. 

Chau'cre (shan'ker) — A primary syphil- 
itic sore. 

Charj'croid (shan'kroid) — A venereal 
sore resembling a chancre. 

Char-ac-ter-is'tic — A distinctive feature 
of anything. 

Chas'ti-ty — Sexual or moral purity; con- 
tinence. 

Chron'ic — Of long standing. 

Cir-cum-ci'sion — The act of cutting off 
the prepuce of the male child. 

Cli-mac'ter-ic— Certain periods of 
marked change in man's or in 
woman's physical constitution, as at 
the beginning of puberty and at men- 
opause. 

Ca-ag'u-late — A change from a liquid to 
a semi-solid state, as blood to clot, 
and milk to curd. 

Co-i'tion— Sexual intercourse; copula- 
tion. 



A GLOSSARY OF MEDICAL TERMS. 



419 



Col-lapse' — A sudden failing of the vital 
powers. 

Co'ma — A profound but unnatural 
sleep; lethargy; stupor. 

Com-pli-ca'tion — One disease existing 
together with and modifying another 
malady. 

Con-cep'tion — The beginning of a new 
life; the union of an ovum and a 
spermatozoon in the womb. 

Con-cre'tion— A mass formed by the 
growing together of material. 

Con'di-ment — That which gives relish to 
food. 

Con-flne'ment — Accouchement; a 
woman's giving birth to a child. 

Con'flu-ent — Flowing together so as to 
form one, as pustules in small- 
pox. 

Con-ges'tion— Over-fulness of blood- 
vessels; a stopping of the proper flow 
of blood. 

Con-san-guin'it-y — Blood relationship. 

Con-sol-i-da'tion — The uniting of in- 
jured parts. 

Con-sti-pa'tion — Costiveness; unnatural 
slowness in the movements of the 
bov/els. 

Con-stric'tion — Contraction; shrinking; 
squeezing. 

Con-ta'gious — Diseases that may be 
transmitted to another only by con- 
tact. See Infectious. 

Con'ti-nent — Chaste; temperate; re- 
straining the sexual powers. 

Con-trac'tile — Having the power of 
shrinking. 

Con-tti'sion — A bruise. 

Con-va-les'cence — In a state of recov- 
ery; improving in health. 

Con-vo-lu'tions — The state of being 
curved or rolled together, as the outer 
surface of the brain. 

Co-or'di-nate — All parts of the body in 
proper order and acting in har- 
mony. 

Cop-u-la'tion — The union of the sexes 
in the generative act; coition. 

Cor-rO'sive— Eating away; gradually 
consuming. 

Coun'ter=ir'ri-tant — That which pro- 
duces an irritation in one part of the 
body to relieve an existing irritation 
in another part. 

Cu'ti-cle — The outer skin. 



Cyst — Any membranous sac; any abnor- 
mal sac in which abnormal matter 
may be collected or retained. 

De-coc'tion — A preparation of medicine 
made by boiling. 

De-com-po-si'tion — Decay; rot. 

Def-e-ca'tion -The act of going to stool. 

De-gen-e-ra'tion — Becoming worse in 
quality or condition. 

Del-e-te'ri-ous — Destructive; perni- 
cious; injurious. 

De-mul'cent — Soothing; bland; any ap- 
plication soothing to an irritated sur- 
face, as an oily or mucilaginous sub- 
stance. 

Den'ti-frice — A preparation to cleanse 
the teeth. 

Den-ti'tion — The time or process of cut- 
ting the teeth. 

De-nQde'— To strip the covering from; 
to make naked. 

Dep-o-si'tion — The pressing down of the 
lens of the eye. 

Des-qua-m&'tion — A scaling off, as the 
cuticle in flakes. 

Di-ag-no'sis — The art of ascertaining 
^ disease. 

Di-a-pho-ret'ic — Medicine that causes 
or aids perspiration. 

Di'a-phragm (di'a-fram) — The breath- 
ing muscles between the thoracic and 
abdominal cavities. 

Di-ar-rhe'a — Looseness of the bowels. 

Di-ath'e-sis — A predisposition to certain 
forms of disease, as scrofulous, con- 
sumptive, rheumatic or gouty diathe- 
sis, 

Dr'et — Proper food. 

Dl'et-a-ry— Pertaining to diet. 

Dl-e-tet'ics — Relating to diet. 

Dif-fuse' — Of undefined limits, as a 
spreading of inflammation. 

Dl-late' — To spread out; to widen. 

Dil'Q-ent — Any medicine that thins the 
blood. 

Dl-lute' — To weaken with water. 

Diph-the'ri-a — An acute, malignant, 
infectious disease of the throat. 

Dis-in-fect'ant— A substance to destroy 
the germs of infectious diseases. 

Dis-in-te-gra'tion — Separation into 
parts. 

Dis-per'sion — The removal of inflamma- 
tion from a part of the body, as by 
scattering or by absorption. 



420 



A GLOSSARY OF MEDICAL TERMS. 



Dl-u-ret'ic — Causing increased dis- 
charge of urine. 

Dor'sal— Pertaining to the back. 

Douche (doosh) — A jet or current of 
water against some part of the body, 
as in a bath; also, the instrument for 
directing such jet. 

Dras'tic — Acting vigorously. 

Ducts — Tubes or canals for the convey- 
ance of the fluids of the body. 

Du-o-de'num — The first portion of the 
small intestines. 

Dys-pep'si-a — Difficult and painful di- 
gestion, usually chronic. 

Ef-fer-vesce' (ef-er-ves')— To bubble up; 
to foam. 

Ef-fete'— Worn out; exhausted, as de- 
cayed matter. 

Ef-flo-res'cence — An eruption of the 
skin; a rash. 

Ef-flu'vi-um — An invisible, subtle, nox- 
ious, ill-smelling exhalation from de- 
caying matter, as the effluvium from 
some foul disease. 

Ef-fQ'sion — The pouring out of the 
blood or other fluid from its proper 
vessel into the cellular tissue or into 
a cavity. 

E-lim'i-nate — To separate and cast 
aside, as to eliminate waste matter 
from the system. 

E-ma'ci~ate — To become lean; to waste 
away in flesh. 

Em'bry-o — The young in the womb dur- 
ing the period between conception 
and quickening. 

E-met'ic— Medicine that produces vom- 

_ iting. 

E-mis'sion — The act of putting out or 
sending forth; a throwing off or out, 
as seminal emissions. 

E-mul'sion — A liquid mixture in which 
a fatty substance is suspended in 
minute globules, as emulsion of cod- 
liver oil. 

En-am'el — The outer hard covering of 
the teeth. 

En-ceiute' (an-sant')— With child; preg- 
nant. 

En-cyst'ed — Enclosed in a membranous 
sac or cyst, as an encysted tumor. 

En'e-raa — An injection into the rectum. 

En-gorg'ed — .billed with blood to ex- 
cess; congestion. 



En-nui' (an-we') — Dulness of spirit; 
listlessness; lassitude. 

En-te-ri'tis — Inflammation of the intes- 
tines. 

En-vl'ron-ment — All the external cir- 
cumstances surrounding a person. 

Ep-i-dem'ic — A wide-spread occurrence 
of a disease in a certain region, as an 
epidemic of small-pox. 

Ep-i-der'mis — The outer skin of the 
body; the cuticle. 

Ep-i-gas'tri-um— In the region over the 
stomach. 

Ep'i-lep-sy — A chronic nervous disease, 
resulting many times in convul- 
sions. 

Ep-i-the'li-ate — To become covered with 
epithelium, as a wound when begin- 
ning to heal. 

Ep-i-the'li-um — The thin skin which 
covers the red parts of the outer 
body (as the lips) and the mucous 
membrane of the alimentary canal 
and its connections. 

E-rad'i-cate — To root out; to destroy 
the cause of a disease. 

E-rec'tile — Capable of expansion and 
of becoming firm, as the sexual 

_ organs. 

E-ro'sion— Eating away of the bodily 
substance by corrosive agents or by 
ulceration; canker. 

Er-uc-ta'tion — The act of belching or 
throwing off wind from the stomach; 

_- also that which is thrown off. 

E-rup'tion — Pimples or blotches on the 
skin or pustules from small-pox. 

Es-cha-rot'ic — An agent capable of de- 
stroying living tissue (flesh) and form- 
ing an eschar. 

E'ther — A colorless, mobile, volatile 
liquid used as an anesthetic. 

Eu'nuch — A man whose testes have been 
removed. 

Eu-sta'chi-an tube— A tube leading 
from behind the soft palate to the 
drum of the ear. 

is-vac'u-a-tion — The act of discharging 
by stool. 

Ex-cis'ion — A cutting out or cutting off 
any part of the body. 

Ex-cres'cence— An unnatural, disfigur- 
ing growth on the body, as a wart. 

Ex-cre'ta — All refuse or useless matter 
thrown off the body. 



A GLOSSARY OF MEDICAL TERMS. 



421 



Ex-crS'tion— That which is thrown off 
the body, as sweat, urine and the like. 

Ex-pec'to-rant — A medicine used in 
promoting expectoration. 

Ex-pec-to-ra'tion — The act of spitting 
mucous matter from lungs, throat, 
head and the like. 

Ex-pi-ra'tion— Breathing out, or expel- 
ling the air from the lungs. 

Ex-ter'nal — The outside. 

Ex-trav'a-s&te — To suffer fluids of the 
body to escape from the proper ves- 
sels to the surrounding parts. 

Ex-trem'i-ties — Applied to the arms 
and legs of a person. 

Ex-tide' — To ooze or flow slowly. 

Fae'ces, or fe'ces — The discharge from 
the Dowels. 

Fal-lo'pi-an tubes — Tubes from the ova- 
ries to the uterus; oviducts. 

Far-i-n&'ceous — Mealy; starchy; partak- 
ing of the nature of grain. 

Feb'ri-fuge — Any successful fever med- 
icine. 

Feb'rile— Pertaining to fever. 

Fe-cun'date — To make fruitful; to im- 
pregnate. 

Fel'on — A deep abscess on the finger. 

Fern 'o-ral— Relating to the thigh. 

Fe'mur— The thigh bone. 

Fer-ment'— To effervesce; to work, as 
beer, wine or cider. 

Fe-tal — Pertaining to the child in the 
womb. 

Fet'id — Having an offensive smell. 

Fe'tus — The child in the womb. 

Fl'ber — A thread-like substance in the 
animal or vegetable. 

Fi'brin — A part of the blood which 
causes it to coagulate when exposed 
to the air. 

FiFa-ment— A thread-like structure of 
the body. 

Fis'tu-la — An unnatural opening into a 
natural canal or hollow organ; a 
long, narrow canal caused by dis- 
eased action in the body. 

Flac'cid (flak'sid) — Lacking firmness; 
soft; flabby. 

Flat'u-lence — Gas in the stomach or 
bowels. 

Flood 'ing — To bleed copiously after 
childbirth. 

Flu'or al'bus— Leucorrhea; whites. 



Flux — Diarrhea; an unnatural flow of 

some fluid from the body. 
Fol'li-cle — A very small cavity, sac or 

tube in man and other animals. 
Fo-men-ta'tion — A hot application to 

the body, as warm washes or poul- 
tices to allay pain. 
Fri'a-ble — Easily crumbled. 
Fric'tion — Rubbing the body with the 

hand or some other thing to produce 

heat and life. 
Fron'tal — In front. 
Fu'mi-gate — To smoke a room or any 

article needing to be disinfected. 
Func'tion— The natural office, duty 

or action of any special organ of the 

body. 
Fun'gus— Proud flesh; spongy flesh in 

wounds. 
Fu'sion— To melt and flow together. 

Gall -bile — A secretion of the liver. 

Gall-bladder — A sac which receives the 
gall from the liver, and in due time 
passes it through a duct into the 
duodenum. 

Gall-stone — A biliary secretion found in 
the gall-bladder. 

Gao'gli-on — In anatomy, a collection of 
nerves or lymphatics; in pathology, 
a hard, indolent, encysted globular 
tumor. 

Gau'grene— The first stages of mortifi- 
cation; the beginning of decay in a 
part of the body. 

Gar'gle— A liquid preparation for wash- 
ing the throat. 

Gas'e-ous— Having the nature and form 
of gas. 

Gas'tric — Belonging to the stomach. 

Gastric juice — The digestive secretions 
of the stomach. 

Gas-trl'tis — Inflammation of the stom- 
ach. 

Ge-lat'i-nous — Like jelly. 

Gen'i-tals — The sexual organs. 

Ge'nus — A group or class in nature. 

Germ — The vital principle of life; the 
origin of a new life. 

Ges-ta'tion — Period of growth of \ the 
child in the womb; pregnancy. 

Glands — Organs whose work is to take 
from the blood such substances as 
are necessary to use in building up 
the system. 



422 



A GLOSSARY OF MEDICAL TERMS. 



Gleet— A slimy, mucous discharge fol- 
lowing gonorrheal inflammation; a 
chronic discharge from any mucous 
membrane. 

Glot'tis — The opening at the top of the 
wind-pipe. 

Glut'ton — One who eats excessively. 

Gon-o-coc'cus (-ci, pi.) — A microbe found 
in gonorrheal discharges, and prob- 
ably the cause of the disease. 

Gon-or-rhe'a (gon-or-re'a) — A venereal 
disease. 

Gout — Inflammation of the joints and 
toes. 

Gran-Q-la'tions— Development of small, 
grain-like, fleshy masses to fill the 
cavity and unite the sides in the 
healing of wounds and ulcers. 

Grav'el — A disease which causes the 
formation of calculi, or a stone-like 
substance in the liver, kidneys or 
bladder. 

Grip-ing — Severe pain in the stomach or 
bowels. 

Hal-lu-ci-na'tion — A delusion; an im- 
pression not real. 

Hec'tic — A form of fever that occurs in 
connection with some organic dis- 
ease; the bright, pink spot which ap- 
pears on the cheek in connection 
with hectic fever. 

He'ma — From the Greek, meaning 
blood; a combining form in the struc- 
ture of words. 

Hem-a-tem'e-sis — Vomiting of blood; 
gastric hemorrhage. 

Hem-a-tu'ri-a — Hemorrhage from the 
bladder or urinary passages. 

Hem-op'ty-sis — Spitting of blood; hem- 
orrhage of the lungs. 

Hem'or-rhage — A discharge of blood. 

Hem'or-rhoids— Piles; tumors in and 
about the anus. 

He-pat' ic — Pertaining to the liver. 

He-red'i-ta-ry — Transmission of phys- 
ical or mental peculiarities, qualities, 
diseases and the like from parent to 
offspring. 

Her'ni-a — A rupture which permits a 
part of the bowels to protrude. 

Her'pes — A disease of the skin; tetter. 

Hom'i-ci-dal— Relating or tending to 
homicide, or the killing of another. 

Hu'mer-us— The largest bone of the arm. 



Hu-mid'i-ty— Moisture. 

Ho'mors— The fluids of the body (not 
including the blood), as the serous 
humor, the vitreous humor of the 
eye and the like. 

Hy'gi-ene — The art of preserving 
health. 

Hy'men— A membrane situated near the 
opening of the vagina in virgins. 

Hy-per-e'mi-a — Excess of blood in any 
part. 

Hyp-o-der'mic — Pertaining to the area 
under the skin. 

Hys-ter'ics — Hysteria; a nervous affec- 
tion marked by alternate fits of 
laughter and crying, with a choking 
sensation in the throat. 

Hys-ter-i'tis — Inflammation of the 
womb. 

Ic'ter-us — Jaundice; a bilious disease 
shown by yellow skin and eyeballs. 

Id'i-o-cy — The state of mental unsound- 
ness; absence of understanding. 

Id-i-op'a-thy — A primary disease; a dis- 
ease not caused by or depending on 
any other. 

H'e-um — The lower part of the small 
intestines. 

Il'i-ac — Pertaining to the ileum. 

iri-um— -The large expanded portion of 
the hip-bone. 

Im'be-cile — One having a feeble or un- 
developed mind; weak-minded; half- 
witted. 

Im-bTbe'— To drink; to absorb. 

Im-mo'bile — That which can not be 
moved, as a stiff joint. 

Im-mune' — Exempt from disease, as one 
made immune from small-pox by 
inoculation. 

Im-paired' — Made weak, as one's vigor 
is impaired by disease or bad hab- 
its. 

Im-per'for-ate — Without pores, open- 
ings or orifices; not perforated. 

Im-per'vi-ous — Not admitting of en- 
trance or passage, as glass is imper- 
vious to water. 

Im'pO-tence — Sterility; inability to bear 
children. 

Im-preg-na'tion — The state of being 
with child; the act of conceiving. 

In-ci'sion — The cutting into with instru- 
ments. 



A GLOSSARY OF MEDICAL TERMS. 



423 



In-con'ti-nence— Inability to hold the 
natural excretions; unchastity; lack 
of proper restraint in sexual desire 
and practice. 

In-cu-ba'tion — The hatching of eggs; 
the time between exposure to disease 
and its development. 

In'do-lent — Slow in progress, as applied 
to ulcers, tumors and the like, which 
develop slowly. 

In-du-ra'tion — Hardening of any part of 
the system by disease. 

In-fec'tious — That which may be com- 
municated from one person to an- 
other by contact or through the 
medium of the air, as an infectious 
disease; distinguished from conta- 
gious. 

In-fe'ri-or — Lower in position or place, 
as the inferior maxilla or lower jaw. 

In-fil-tra'tion — A diffusion of morbid 
matter in a tissue of the body from 
outside sources. 

In-firm'a-ry — A place for the reception 
and treatment of the sick; a hospital, 
as an eye and ear infirmary. 

In-flam-ma'tion— A disease attended 
with heat, redness, swelling, tender- 
ness and pain, caused by too much 
heat and blood in the affected 
parts. 

In-fla'tus — A collection of wind or gas, 
as in the stomach or bowels. 

In-flu-en'za — A disease of a catarrhal 
nature, attended by fever and nerv- 
ous prostration. 

In-nYsion — Medicine prepared by steep- 
ing in water without boiling. 

In-fu-so'ri-a — Microscopic animals 
found in water and other fluids. 

In-gre'di-ent — One article in a com- 
pounded mixture of medicine. 

In-ha-la'tion — Drawing in, as of the 
drawing in of the breath into the 
lungs. 

In-jec'tion — Any preparation thrown 
into the rectum or other cavity by 
means of a syringe. 

In-oc'u-late — To communicate disease 
to a person by means of infectious 
matter, as to inoculate with kine-pox 
as a protection against small-pox. 

In-san'i-ty — A persistent derangement 
of the mind caused by a diseased 
condition of the brain and nerves. 



In-sol'u-ble— Not capable of being dis- 
solved. 

In-som'ni-a — Sleeplessness. 

In-spi-r&'tion — A breathing into the 
lungs. 

In-teg'ri-ty — Soundness; unimpaired; 
unbroken, complete. 

In-ter-cos'tal — Lying between the ribs, 
as the intercostal muscles. 

In-ter-mis'sion — An interval between 
the paroxysms of a disease in which 
there is complete rest. 

In-ter-mit'tent — Having periods of rest, 
as in intermittent fever, in which the 
paroxysms occur at somewhat regu- 
lar intervals. 

In'ter-stice — Empty space between 
parts of a body closely set to- 
gether. 

In-tes'tines — The alimentary canal 
below the stomach; bowels; guts. 

In'tra-u'ter-ine — Inside of the womb. 

In-ver'sion — Turning inside out. 

In-ver'si-o-u'ter-i — Inversion of the 
uterus or womb. 

In-vest' — To surround with a cover- 
ing. 

In-vol'un-tary — Without the action of 
the will. 

Ir-re-du'ci-ble — Applied to hernia, and 
to points which have been out and 
can not be put back to their .places. 

Is-chu'ri-a — Retention or great difficulty 
in passing the urine. 

Is'o-la-ted — Standing alone; detached 
from others. 

Itch — A catching eruption of the skin, 
accompanied by severe itching, 
caused by the itch-mite. 

-itis — A combining form denoting 
inflammation, as bronchitis, inflam- 
mation of the bronchial tubes. 

Jaun'dice — A disease caused by the 

inactivity of the liver. 
Ju'gu-lar — Belonging to the throat, as 

the jugular vein. 

Kid'neys — Two organs which secrete 
the urine. 

La'bi-al — Pertaining to the lips. 
Lam'i-na — A thin scale or sheet; a layer 

or coat over another, as in bone and 

the like. 



424 



A GLOSSARY OF MEDICAL TERMS. 



Lar'ynx — The upper part of the throat. 

Las-civ'i-ous — Lustful; lewd, as a las- 
civious man. 

Las'si-tude — Weakness; a feeling of 
languor. 

Lat'er-al — Pertaining to the side of any- 
thing. 

Lax — Not firm or rigid; loose. 

Lax'a-tive— A medicine that relaxes the 
bowels; a gentle purgative. 

Lg-sion — An injury; a hurt; any change 
in the state of a part or organ pro- 
duced by a disease or injury. 

Leth'argy — Stupor; coma; unnatural 
sleep or sleepiness. 

Leu-cor-rhe'a (lu-ko-re'a) — Catarrh of 
the vagina, causing the discharge of 
a greenish-white mucus; whites; 
uterine catarrh. 

Lewd — Morally depraved; low; vicious; 
wicked; given to licentiousness. 

Lib'-er-tine — O n e who disregards 
moral, social or religious restraint; 
a rake. 

Lig'a-ment— A strong, tendinous band 
of compact, fibrous tissue closely 
binding related parts of the body, as 
the ligaments of a joint. 

Lig'a-ture — A thread, usually of silk or 
catgut, tied around a blood-vessel or 
other part to arrest bleeding, or for 
removing a tumor. 

Lin'gua — The tongue. 

Lith-ot'o-my — The operation of remov- 
ing stone from the bladder by inci- 
sion into the organ. 

Liv'id — Dark colored; black-and-blue; 
the ashy hue of death. 

Lobe— The round, projecting part of an 
organ. 

Lo'cal — Confined to a particular place 
or organ, and not directly affecting 
the whole system. 

Loin — Lower part of the back. 

Lo'tion — A preparation for washing 
sores. 

Lu'bri-cate — To soften with oil, or to 
moisten with fluid. 

Lum-b&'go— Rheumatism of the loins. 

Lymph (limf)— A thin, colorless fluid 
carried in small vein-like vessels, 
called lymphatics. 

Lym-phat'ics — Vein-like vessels con- 
taining the lymph and carrying it 
back into the blood. 



Mai — A combining form signifying bad^ 
as mal-pra.ctice. 

Ma-la'ri-a — Bad air or gas, causing dis- 
ease; the disease itself, as malarial 
fever. 

Male prin-ci-ple — The semen. 

Mal'for-ma'tion — Bad formation; de- 
formity. 

Ma-lig'nant — So aggravated or intense 
as to threaten life; virulent, as a 
malignant type of disease. 

Mam'ma— The female breast; the milk- 
secreting organs of mammals. 

Mam-ma'li-a — The highest form of 
animals, of which man is at the 
head. 

Mar'i-tal — Pertaining to the marriage 
relation as it affects the husband; 
matrimonial. 

Mar'i-tal ex-cess — Too much sexual in- 
tercourse. 

Mar'i-tal rights— Rights due a hus- 
band by virtue of the marriage rela- 
tion. 

Mas-sage (mas-sazh') — A system of 
remedial treatment consisting of 
manipulating a part or whole of the 
body by pressure, kneading, slapping 
and rubbing the muscles. 

Mas-ti-ca'tion— The act of chewing. 

Mas-tur-ba'tion— Excitement, by the 
hand, of the genital organs. 

Ma-ter'nal— Pertaining to a mother or 
to motherhood. 

Ma-ter'ni-ty — The condition of being a 
mother. 

Ma-te'ri-a med-i-ca — That branch of 
the science of medicine which treats 
of the curative agents and their 
effects. 

M&'trix— The womb. 

Mat-u-r&'tion — The formation of pus; 
coming to a head, as the maturation 
of a boil. 

Ma-tu'ri-ty — Full growth; ripeness; 
adult age. 

Me-a'tus — A conspicuous passage or 
canal, as the urethral meatus, 

Me-co'ni-um — The first passage of a 
new-born babe. 

Me'di-an — Middle. 

Med-i-ca'ted — Having medicine in its 
composition. 

Me-dic'i-nal— Pertaining to medicine, or 
having healing qualities. 



A GLOSSARY OF MEDICAL TERMS. 



425 



Mem'brane— A thin, skin-like lining or 
covering. 

Men'ses — The monthly flow from the 
womb. 

Mi'crobe — A microscopic organism, the 
cause of decay, fermentation and 
various infectious diseases. 

Mid 'wife — A woman who makes a busi- 
ness of assisting at childbirth. 

Milt — The sperm of a fish. 

Min'i-mum — The smallest, as a dose of 
medicine; the opposite of maxi- 
mum. 

Mon-o-derphi-a — A sub-class of mam- 
mals, as the kangaroo. 

Mor'bid — Not healthy; diseased. 

Mu'cus — The substance which moistens 
the lining of all cavities of the body 
which have an external opening, as 
the whole digestive canal. 

Mus'cle — The motion-producing fibers 
of the body of animals, known as 
lean meat. 

Nar-cot'ic — A medicine relieving pain 
and producing sleep. 

Na'sal — Pertaining to the nose. 

Nau'se-a — Sickness of the stomach. 

Na'vel — The scar at the center of the 
abdomen. 

Nec-ro'sis — The death of a part of 
the body; mortification; gangrene. 

Neph-rl'tis— Inflammation of the kid- 
neys. 

Nerv'ine — That which will allay or 
soothe nervous excitement. 

Nerv'ous — Easily excited or startled. 

Neu-ral'gi-a — An acute pain of the 
nerve without fever. 

Nip'ples — The cone-shaped process of 
the breast, serving the female as a 
medium through which milk is given 
off; pap; teat. 

Noc-tur'nal — Occurring in the night, as 
nocturnal pollutions. 

Nodes — Hard knots or swellings which 
form around inflamed joints; a firm 
tumor on a bone or tendon. 

Nor'mal — According to an established 
or healthy rule or principle, as a 
normal temperature. 

Nos'trum — A quack medicine. 

Nox'ious — Causing or tending to cause 
injury, especially as to health; hurt- 
ful, as noxious gases. 



Nu-cle'o-lus— A central granule or spot 
within a nucleus. 

Nu'cle-us — A central point or part about 
which matter gathers or grows; a 
kernel. 

Nup'tial — Pertaining to marriage. 

Nu'tri-ent — A nutritious article of food. 

Nu'tri-ment — That which nourishes. 

Nu-tri'tion — The process by which 
growth is promoted and waste re- 
paired. 

Nu-tri'tious— Promoting the growth of 
the body. 

O-bes'i-ty— Morbid corpulence; excess 
of fat or flesh. 

Ob-lit-er-a'tion — The closing up of a 
cavity or passage of the body by the 
uniting of its walls. 

Ob-scure' — Not easily understood; hid- 
den, as an obscure symptom. 

Ob-stet'rics — That branch of medical 
science concerning women during 
pregnancy and parturition. 

Oc-clu'sion — The closing up of an open- 
ing, pore, passage or cavity. 

Oc'u-list — One skilled in the treatment 
of the diseases of the eye. 

Oc'u-lus — The eye. 

Oph-thal'mi-a — Inflammation of the eye 
or its lids and membranes. 

Op'tic nerve — The nerve that receives 
and transmits impressions from the 
eye to the brain. 

Or-gan'ic — Pertaining to or affecting the 
organs of the body, as an organic 
disease. 

Or'gan-ism — Any life composed of or 
acting by means of organs. 

Or'gasm — Extreme excitation of an 
organ; especially the height of vene- 
real excitement in coition. 

Or'i-fice — An opening into any passage. 

Or'i-gin — That end or head which ad- 
heres to the most fixed part, as op- 
posed to that which adheres to the 
movable part, which last is called 
the insertion or tail, as the origin of 
a muscle or nerve. 

Os — The mouth, as of the womb. 

Os'se-ous — Bony. 

Os-si-fi-ca'tion — Formation of bone; 
change of tissue into a bony sub- 
stance, as the ossification of the 
aorta, 



426 



A GLOSSARY OF MEDICAL TERMS. 



Os-tal'gi-a— Pain in the bones. 

Os-tl'tis, or os-te-i'tis— Inflammation 
of bone. 

O-tl'tis — Inflammation of the mucous 
membrane of the ear; earache. 

O'va-ry — The organ of the female that 
gives rise to the ovum. 

O-vip'a-rous — Animals producing eggs 
that mature and are hatched outside 
of the body, as the common bird. 

Ov-u-la'tion — The formation and dis- 
charge of ova. 

O'vum— An egg; ova, eggs. 

Ox'y-gen — One of the free elements 
composing the air; the supporter of 
all ordinary combustion; the vital 
element in the air. 

Pab'u-lum — Food; aliment. 

Pal'ate — The roof of the mouth, as the 
hard palate and the soft palate; also, 
the sense of taste. 

Pal'li-a-tive — Affording relief only, 
without curing. 

Pal'lor — Paleness. 

Pal-pi-ta'tion — Unnatural beating of the 
heart. 

Pan-a-ce'a — A remedy professing to 
cure all diseases; a cure-all. 

Pa-ral'y-sis — Loss or partial loss of 
muscular power or of nervous sensa- 
tion; palsy. 

Par'a-site— An animal that lives on 
other animals. 

Par-a-sit'ic — Relation to, of the nature 
of, or caused by, parasites, as a 
parasitic disease or growth. 

Par'ox-ysm — A periodic attack of a dis- 
ease; a fit or convulsion of any kind. 

Par-tu-ri'tion — The act of bringing forth 
young; childbirth. 

Path-o-log'ic-al — Pertaining to pathol- 
ogy. 

Pa-thol'o-gy — That branch of medical 
science which treats of morbid or 
diseased conditions, their causes, 
symptoms, nature, physiology and 
anatomy. 

Pec'to-ral — Pertaining to the breast or 
thorax, as the pectoral muscles, the 
muscles of the breast. 

Pel'vis — The bony cavity at the lower 
part of the trunk of man. 

Pen'du-lous — Hanging so as to swing on 
a fixed point above. 



Pep'sin— The substance in the stomach 
which aids in digesting the food. 

Per-i-car'di-um — The sac containing the 
heart. 

Per-i-ne'um— The entire region at the 
outlet of the pelvis; also, the space 
between the anus and the vulva. 

Pe-ri-o-dic'i-ty — The quality of being 
periodic; the tendency of special 
phenomena (either normal or mor- 
bid) to return at definite periods, as 
the periodicity of a fever. 

Per-i-os'te-um— -The membrane which 
covers and nourishes all the bones of 
the body. 

Per-i-stal'tic — Pertaining to the worm- 
like motion of the intestines by 
which their contents are moved 
onward. 

Per-i-to-ne'um— The membrane that 
lines the abdominal cavity. 

Per-i-to-nl'tis— Acute inflammation of 
the peritoneum. 

Per-ver'sion— An unhealthy change; 
turning from what is healthful to 
what is injurious. 

Pes'sa-ry — An instrument for support- 
ing the mouth and neck of the 
womb. 

Phar-ma-ceu'tic-al— Pertaining to the 
art of preparing medicines. 

Phar-ma-ceu'tist— One skilled in the art 
and science of compounding med- 
icines. 

Phar'ma-cy— /The art of compounding 
drugs for use as medicine. 

Phlegm (flem)— Mucus from the bron- 
chial tubes and throat. 

Phlo-gis'tic— Presenting an inflamed 
appearance; inflammatory condition. 

Phthi'sis (thi'sis)— Tuberculosis of the 
lungs; pulmonary consumption; wast- 
ing away. 

Phys-i-o-log'ic-al— Relating to the 
science of proper living in a state of 
health. 

Piles— Tumors at or in the anus; hem- 
orrhoids. 

Pla-cen'ta— The organ by which the 
fetal blood and the maternal blood 
are brought together; the after-birth. 

Pleth'o-ra — A state of excessive fulness; 
abnormal fulness; too much blood 
in the whole system. 

Ple-thor'ic— Fleshy; full of blood. 



A GLOSSARY OF MEDICAL TERMS. 



427 



Pleu'ra (plu'ra) — The membrane cover- 
ing the lungs. 

Pleu'ri-sy — Inflammation of the pleura; 
pleuritis. 

Pneu-mO'ni-a (nu-mo'ni-a) — Inflamma- 
tion of the lung-tissue, accompanied 
by fever, local pain, cough, expec- 
toration and difficulty in breathing. 

Pod-o-phyl'lin — Used as a purgative 
medicine. 

Point'ing— The thinning of the walls of 
an abscess at the point where it 
threatens to break. 

Pol'y-pus— A pear-shaped tumor in a 
cavity of the body, as the nose, 
womb and the like. 

Pos-te'ri-or — Behind in position. 

Pre-cur'sor — Forerunner; that which 
indicates the approach of disease or 
any event in its course. 

Pre-dis-pose' — To make liable or sus- 
ceptible, as an inherited weakness 
predisposes one to a certain disease. 

Pre-dis-pO-si'tion — A tendency to a dis- 
ease. 

Preg'nan-cy— The condition of being 
with child. 

Pre-na'tal— Before birth. 

Pres-en-ta'tion — The position of the 
fetus, or child, at birth — that is, the 
part that is first presented to the 
touch at the mouth of the womb. 

Proc'ess — An outgrowth or eminence; a 
projecting part, as the process of a 
bone. 

Pro'cre-ate — To beget; to produce by 
generation, as to procreate a child. 

Prog-nO'sis — Prediction relating to the 
future course and final termination 
of any case of disease. 

Pro-lap 'sus— The falling down of an 
organ from its normal position, as the 
prolapsus of the womb. 

Prop'a-gate — To multiply by genera- 
tion; to spread, as a disease. 

Pros'tate gland— A gland at the base of 
the bladder in man. 

Pros-tat'ic— Relating to the prostate 
gland. 

Pros-tra'tion— A great temporary de- 
pression of the bodily functions or 
vital energies, as nervous prostration. 

Pros'ti-tute — A woman who practices 
indiscriminate lewdness for hire; a 
harlot. 



Pros-ti-tu'tion — The business of a pros- 
titute. 

Pro'to-plasm — The viscid, contractile, 
semi-liquid, more or less granular 
substance that forms the principal 
portion of an animal or vegetable 
cell. 

Prude — A person, especially a woman, 
who makes an exaggerated and often 
affected display of modesty. 

Pru'der-y — The state or quality of being 
prudish or a prude. 

Pru-ri'tis — A skin disease causing in- 
tense itching. 

PsO'ra (so'ra) — The itch or some similar 
disease of the skin. 

Psy-chol'o-gy (si-kol'o-gi) — The science 
of the human soul and its opera- 
tions. 

PG'ber-ty — The age at which persons of 
either sex are capable of begetting 
children. 

Pfl'bes— The lower part of the abdo- 
men, which is covered with hair at 
the age of puberty. 

Pu-er'per-al— Pertaining to, connected 
with, or resulting from childbirth; 
as puerperal fever. 

Pul'mo-na-ry — Pertaining to the lungs, 
as pulmonary arteries. 

Pu'pil — The dark circle in the eye. 

Pur'ga-tive — A medicine that causes 
evacuation of the bowels; a strong 
laxative. 

Pu'ru-lent — Consisting of pus, as puru- 
lent matter. 

Pu9 — A secretion from inflamed tis- 
sue, as sores, abscesses and the 
like. 

Pus'tule — A small elevation of the skin 
containing pus. 

Pu-tre-fac'tion— Decomposition of ani- 
mal or vegetable matter. 

Py-e'mi-a — Blood-poisoning, produced 
when pus is absorbed into the sys- 
tem and becomes mingled with the 
blood. 

Py-lo'rus — The lower opening of the 
stomach. 

Quick'en-ing— The motion or the first 
occurrence of the sensation a preg- 
nant woman has of the motion of the 
child in the womb. 

QuI-es'cent — Not moving; still. 



428 



A GLOSSARY OF" MEDICAL TERMS. 



Ra'di-us — One of the bones of the fore- 
arm. 

Ra'dix — A root or root-like part. 

Ram'i-fy — To divide or sub-divide into 
branches, as the nerves ramify all 
parts of the body. 

Rash — A skin eruption showing redness 
with but little elevation of the scarf 
skin, as in scarlet fever. 

Rats-bane — Rat-poison; arsenic. 

Re-ces'sion — Striking in of the blood or 
disease going to the internal organs. 

Rec-re-a'tion — Refreshment of mind 
and body after toil, as any pleasur- 
able exercise or employment; rest. 

Rec'tum — The lower portion of intes- 
tines. 

Re-cd'per-ate — Recovering of lost 
power. 

Re-duc'tion — An operation for restoring 
fractures or displaced parts to their 
normal position, as the reduction of 
hernia. 

Reg'i-men — A regulated order or course 
of living with reference to food, 
clothing and personal habits for the 
sake of health. 

Re-lapse' (re-laps') — Return of a disease 
after an improved condition. 

Re-lax-a'tion — Losing the healthy tone 
of any part or of the whole sys- 
tem. 

Re-mis'sion — Abatement of the violence 
of a disease or pain. 

Re'nal — Pertaining to the kidneys. 

Re-pro-duc'tion — Procreation; genera- 
tion; formation of a new organ- 
ism. 

Re-sid'u-al — Remaining as dregs or 
sediment after a part is taken. 

Res-o-ltl'tion — The breaking up, termi- 
nation or disappearance of disease 
or diseased portions. 

Res-pi-ra'tion— The act of breathing. 

Re-sus-ci-ta'tion — The act of reviving 
from insensibility or apparent death. 

Retch'ing — An effort to vomit. 

Ret'i-na — -Inner coating of the eye. , 

Rheu'ma-tism — Inflammation of the 
fibrous tissues, mostly confined to 
the large joints. 

Rig'id — Unyielding; inflexible; stiff. 

Rig'or — The condition of being stiff or 
rigid, as the rigor of death. 

Rig'or mor'tis — The rigor of death. 



Rup'ture — Hernia; also, a breaking, as 
of a blood-vessel. 

Sac — A bag or membranous envelope 
for any liquid or solid substance. 

Sac'cha-rine — Having the properties of 
sugar. 

Sa'line — Having the qualities of salt. 

Sa-li'va — Secretions of the mouth. 

Sa-lQ'bri-ous — Favorable to health. 

San'a-tive— Curative; healthful; healing. 

San'guine— Abundance and activity of 
blood. 

Sca'bi-es— The itch; the itch-mite. 

Scl-at'ic — Pertaining to the hips, as 
sciatic rheumatism, the inflamma- 
tion of the sciatic nerve. 

Scrof'u-la — Constitutional tendency to 
diseases of the glands of the body. 

Scro'tum— The sac which encloses the 
glands testes. 

Se-ba'ceous — Having fatty secretions. 

Se-cre'tion — The act of separating by 
vital process certain substances from 
the blood, as the kidneys secrete 
urine from the blood. 

Se'cret sin — Masturbation. 

Sed'a-tive— Quieting; soothing; the op- 
posite of stimulating. 

Sed'en-ta-ry — Sitting; inactive; as seden- 
tary habits. 

Self-abuse — Self -pollution; masturba- 
tion. 

Se'men — The generative fluid of the 
male. 

Sem'i-nal — Pertaining to the seed or 
germ, as the seminal fluid of man. 

Se'quel — That which follows as the 
result of a disease; its consequences. 

Se'rous — Watery, as the serous mem- 
brane that gives off the serum. 

Se'rum — The watery production of the 
blood and of the serous membrane. 

Sex'u-al— Pertaining to the two sexes; 
generative; genital; venereal, as sex- 
ual appetite, sexual weakness, sex- 
ual organs. 

Sl'nus — A cavity or canal in any part of 
the body. 

Sitz bath — Bath in a sitting position. 

Slough (sluff) — The dead part which 
separates from the living tissue in 
any sore. 

So-po-rif'ic — Causing or tending to pro- 
duce sleep. 



A GLOSSARY OF MEDICAL TERMS. 



429 



Spasm — Cramp or convulsions. 

Spe-cif'ic — A remedy having a definite, 
peculiar, uniform action, as quinine 
is a specific for malaria. 

Sperm — Seminal fluid; the semen. 

Sper-ma-tor-rhe'a — Seminal discharge 
without voluntary sexual excite- 
ment. 

Sper-ma-to-zo'on — One of the living ele- 
ments in semen; one of the essential 
male fertilizing elements. Plural 
form, sper-ma-to-zo'a. 

Sphinc'ter (sfink'ter) — A muscle that 
surrounds an opening or tube and 
serves to close it at will, as at the 
anus. 

Spine — The back-bone. 

Ster-il'i-ty — Barrenness; having no 
reproductive power. 

Stim'u-lant — A medicine that excites an 
increased and healthful action. 

Stitch — A spasmodic pain. 

Sto-ma-ti'tis — Inflammation of the 
stomach. 

Stran-gu-la'tion — Having the circula- 
tion stopped in any part of the body 
by mechanical means, as the intes- 
tines in hernia. 

Sub-a-cute' — Mild; not*of great sever- 
ity. 

Styp'tic — A substance causing con- 
traction of living tissue, hence, effi- 
cient in stopping bleeding. 

Su-dor-if'ic — Inducing sweat; from 
su'dor, sweat. 

Su-i-cr'dal — Tending toward voluntary 
self-destruction. 

Su-per-fi'cial — On the surface; not deep; 
on the outside. 

Su-pe'ri-or — High as to place; upper. 

Sup-pu-ra'tion — A gathering of matter 
in a wound or abscess; pus-forming. 

Symp'toms — The signs which point out 
a disease; a guide to diagnosis. 

Syn'co-pe — Sudden faintness; a fainting 
fit; swooning. 

Syph'i-lis — A specific, infectious, vene- 
real disease communicated by direct 
contact with the virus; also is hered- 
itary. 

Tem'per-a-ment— A type of mental 
character, as the sanguine, the bil- 
ious, the nervous temperament. 



Tes'ti-cle — One of the glands that se- 
crete semen. 
Ther-a-peu'tics— The department of 

medical science which relates to the 

treatment of diseases. 
Tho'rax— The chest. 
Tib'i-a — The large bone of the lower 

leg. 
Tis'sue — The proper substance of an 

organ, as the nervous tissue. 
Tra'che-a — The wind-pipe. 
Trit'u-rate — The process of grinding to 

fine powder by rubbing in a mortar. 
Tu'mor — A morbid enlargement of any 

part of the body. 

Ul-cer-a'tion — The forming of an ulcer. 

Um-bil'ic-al cord — The rope-like struc- 
ture that passes from the fetus to 
the placenta; the connecting cord 
that unites the mother-life with un- 
born child. 

U-re'a — The essential part of the urine. 

U-re'ter — The duct leading into the 
bladder from the kidneys. 

U-re'thra — The duct leading from the 
bladder as the exit for the urine. 

U rine — The secretion of the kidneys. 

U'ter-us — The womb. 

Va-gl'na — The passage from the womb 
to the vulva. 

Vas'cu-lar — Consisting of vessels. 

Ve'na ca'va— The large vein next to the 
heart. 

Ve-ne're-al — Pertaining to or proceed- 
ing from sexual intercourse, as a 
venereal disease. 

Ve'nous — Pertaining to the veins. 

Ven-til-a'tion — The process of causing 
a free circulation of air in a building. 

Ven'tri-cle— One of the chambers of the 
heart. 

Vil-li — Small elevations of a velvety ap- 
pearance on animal membranes, as 
the villi of the small intestines. 

Vir'u-lent — Exceedingly severe, as a 
virulent ulcer. 

Vl'rus — Containing poison. 

Vul'va — Outer lips of the vagina. 

Womb— The organ in woman which 
conceives and nourishes the unborn 
child. 



£Ilph0betic0l Index 



PAGE 



Abernathy, Dr., quoted 120 

Abortion, criminal, 346; what it is, 
347; intentional, 353; laws regard- 
ing, 347; Michigan State Board 
of Health, 349; position of Prot- 
estant churches on, 348; of 
Catholic church, 348; penalty. . . 347 

Abuse of social customs 178 

Academy, the London, quoted 230 

Acton, Dr., quoted. . . .260, 305, 320, 368 

Adams family, 25; J. Q 182 

Adolescence, period of 266, 319 

Age, to marry, 101; respect for 242 

Air, limitless, 372; amount required, 375 
Alcohol, influences. . .27, 29, 41, 46, 98 

Allen, Mary Wood, quoted 

89, 93,95,98, 100 

Ambition, boy's highest 283 

Anger shortens life Ill 

Animal, foods, 142; kingdom, two 

divisions of, 15; life 13 

Antwerp, statistics 55 

Appearances, keeping up, 175; per- 
sonal 125, 244 

Arena 51 

Armour, P. D., on mothers 99 

Artistic surroundings during gesta- 
tion 193 

Astor, John Jacob 256 

Atavism, or intermittent heredit3 T . . 21 

Attendants at childbirth 202 

Attire and health 106 

Attorney's method 277 



Baby, basket, 201; dressing of, 204; 

preparation for 201 

Bach family 26 

Bacon, Lord, inheritance of 25 

Bad books, effects of 286 

Baldwin, Mary R., quoted 69, 155 

Bancroft, the historian, on temper, 111 



PAGE 

Barker, Dr. F., quoted 56 

Barron, evangelist, quoted 135, 136 

Barton, Clara 183 

Bath, sitz, for prospective mothers, 

199; salt-water 120 

Battle for purity, 271; how fought. . 277 

Bayless, Clara Kern, quoted 79 

Beauty 84 

Bed, its preparation for childbirth, 

202; single, 119; should husband 

and wife occupy the same 316 

Bedrooms, care of, 119; size of, 375; 

ventilation of 376 

Beecher family 25 

Beecher, Rev. H. W 152 

Beethoven 248 

Besant, Sir Walter 255 

Besetting sin 278 

Bickerdyke, Mother 183 

Bird with the broken wing 339 

Birthmarks 55, 56 

Black Hole of Calcutta 374 

Blood-marks of crime 26 

Boarding-school, dangers in 259, 264 

Bok, Edward 173 

Books, bad, evil effects of 286 

Boys, f alsereasoning of , 266; highest 

ambition, 283; keeping hold of. . 218 
Bradford, Dr. A. H., on wild oats, 343 
Breakfast, a day without, 148; fruit 

at : 147 

Breasts, caked, attention to 203, 204 

Breathing exercise 120 

Bride, care of 302 

Brooks, Prof. W. K 23 

Brother, sister's influence over 63 

Browning, Mrs., quoted 153 

Bulkley, Dr. L. D., quoted 334 

Burns, Robert 52 

Bushnell, Horace 156 

Business, training of women, 78; 

education of daughter 77 

Butler, Dr., on dancing 336 

Butterworth, Hezekiah, poem 339 

Byron, Lord, inheritance of 25, 181 



431 



432 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 



PAG1 



Caked breasts 203, 204 

Calcutta, Black Hole of 374 

Calvin, John 256 

Carbonic dioxide. . . 373 

Cards 136 

Care, physical, of young mother. . . 190 

Carlyle, Thos 105 

Casagrandi, Dr., experiments by.. 

137, 138 

Castration, effects of 276 

Catarrhal difficulties 317 

Catholic church on abortion 348 

Cato, the censor 151 

Celebrities from large families 355 

Cell life 11 

Chaddock, Dr. C. B., quoted 289 

Chancroid 328 

Change of life, in women, 364; in 

men 365 

Charlemagne 256 

Charlotte Medical Journal 323 

Chastity, quoted 280, 293 

Chastity, and continence, 274; a life 

struggle 271 

Chicago police reports 31 

Child, at birth, attention to, 203; 
birth or parturition, 195; mark 
ings and fancies, 194; individual- 
ity of, 231; confidence of, 239; 

love 208 

Child of Light, quoted 273, 288 

Children, duty to younger, 63, 222; 
harmless caprices of, 210; tastes, 
211; tact and management of, 

212; early training 214 

Choice of husband 102 

Choosing a wife 356 

Christian church on abortion 348 

Christ's tribute to woman 184 

Cicero 365 

Cigarettes 245 

Circumcision, history of 268 

Clam, dissection of 13 

Cleanliness of person 317 

Climacteric period 364 

Clothing, aired, 120; distribution of 

138, 139 

Clymer, Rev. J. T., quoted 144 

Cody, Col. W. F 53 

Coffee and tea 142 

Colburn, Mrs. L. T 198 

College students, diet for 145 



PAGE 

College women, record of marriage 

of 82 

Combs, George, quoted 46 

Complexion 121 

Conception, 49; time of, 46; when it 

takes place 89 

Confinement, preparation for 200 

Conjugal law 312, 313 

Conjunction, parents' condition 46 

Constipation to be avoided 199 

Consumption induced by masturba- 
tion 26- 

Continence during gestation 192 

Continency and chastity 274 

Conversation, filthy 283 

Cooper, Peter 251 

Coriolanus 150 

Corsets, evil effects of (cut) 107, 137 

Cosmetics, the best 70, 71 

Courtezan and libertine 295 

Courtship 88 

Cowan, Dr. John, quoted. 39 

Cox, Dr. Edward, on abortion 350 

Craig, Dr. J. D., statement of.. 145, 146 
Crime, was he responsible? 30; in- 
herited 26 

Criminal records 27 

Crippen, Rev. J. T., on drink among 

women 98 

Cris. Merry 32 

Critical times 92 

Cromwell 152 

Crowning Sin of the Age 292, 350 

Culture, physical, 128; prenatal 191 

Cuts of corsets 107 

Cycling 134 

D 

Dalton, Dr., quoted 362 

Dancing 135, 336 

Danger-line, 306; to the daughter.. 85 
Darwin, Charles, his theory. .22, 42, 359 
Daughter, business education of, 77; 
in a new world, 83; mother's rela- 
tion to, 219; the little 59 

Death-rate of children 334 

Debt, evils of 253 

Declaration of Independence 19, 293 

Defectives 30 

Defenders, the daughter's 86 

Desire of offspring natural 355 

Diet, fruit, for prospective mothers 
196, 198 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 



433 



PAGE 

Don'ts for mothers 224, 225 

Do's for mothers 225, 226 

Dress, 136; immodest, 282; warm. . . 138 

Dressing the baby 204 

Drink habit 246 

Drudgery 247 

Drummond, Professor, quoted.. 32, 50 

Drunkard 46 

Drunken, parentage, effects of, 28; 

women 98, 99 

Dualism in nature 12 

DuBois, Sarah V., quoted 71 

Duffey, Mrs., quoted 303 

Dugdale, R. S., traces the Max- 
Jukes descendants 341 

E 

Early marriage 298 

Earning a living 66 

Eating and self -abuse 97 

Economy 251 

Education, necessary, 36; of girls. . 78 

Egg 12 

Elliot, Dr. Sidney Barrington, 

quoted 40, 299, 309, 358 

Ellis, Dr., quoted 308 

Embryo, human, developed 48 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, quoted, 

12; noted 25, 70, 71 

Encouragement needed 237 

Energy, wasted 250 

Enjoyment, sexual, mutual 313 

Enlighten the young man 323 

Environment versus heredity 32 

Evangelist, New York, quoted, 75 to 77 
Evil, influences, 282; mind the 

source of 280 

Excess impairs health 306 

Eyes, care of 123 

F 

False ideas 352 

False teachings concerning loss of 

semen 272 

Family, infected by syphilis, 331; 

relation ordained by God, 291; 

traits 24 

Families, large or small 354 

Farrar, Rev. F. W 182 

Fathers, exacting, 233; experience. . 235 

Female weakness, cause of 353 

Filling in 67 



PAGE 

Filthy conversation 283 

Fishes, reproduction of 14 

Food, cooked, 148; elements of, 139; 

kinds, 142; hints 143 

Foote, Dr., quoted 188 

Foster, Professor 366 

Four periods in man's life 319 

Fowler, Prof. O. S., quoted 

23, 39, 265, 320, 340 

Fruit at breakfast 147 

Fumigation, not sufficient 120 

Furnace, hot air 378 



G 



Galopin, Dr 317 

Galton, Francis, his experiment 22 

Garfield, J. A 181 

Garrigues, Dr. H. J., quoted 326 

Gentleman, meaning of 244 

George Eliot, quoted 24 

Gestation, artistic surroundings 
during, 193; conditions during. . 192 

Gibbon, the historian 248 

Gibson, Charles Dana 249 

Girl at home 59 

Gladstone, Mr. and Mrs 152 

Glossary of medical terms 417 

Goethe, the poet 182 

Gonorrhea 322, 323, 324 

Good manners 215 

Gore, Dr. A. E., quoted 57 

Grant, Gen. U. S 254 

Great men, mothers of 180 

Green, Mrs. Hetty, quoted 78 

Grisettes, in France 32 

Guernsey, Dr., quoted 303 



Habits, cigarette, 245; drink, 246; 

occupation and 126 

Hair, care of 125 

Hall, Dr. G. Stanley 79 

Hands, care of 124 

Happy, the art of making 70 

Harper's Bazar^ quoted 168 

Harrison family 26 

Hastings, H. L., quoted 363 

Hawthorne 152 

Health, and attire, 106; and mar- 
riage, 105; essential, 43; general, 
for prospective mother, 188; im- 
paired by excess 306 



434 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 



Hereditary influences 19 to 38 

Heredity, defined, 20; and environ- 
ment, 32; and mental dulness, 
28; modified by marriage, 34; 

modified by other forces 37 

Heritage and responsibility 34 

Herr, Dr. F. C, quoted 57 

Hicks, Dorcas, quoted 157 

Higher education 78 

Hillis, Dr., quoted 253 

Hoff, Dr. Chas. A., quoted 259, 289 

Hoffman, Dr 265 

Hollick, Dr., quoted 367 

Holmes, Dr. O. W., quoted 

27, 33, 249, 261, 262 

Home, a daughter's place in, 63; a 
preparation for, 298; a woman 
necessary, 170; politeness in, 244; 
what makes a, 170; "Sweet 

Home" 172 

Honey-bee 14 

Hot air furnace 378 

Hot water heating 379 

Howe, Dr. S. G., report of 263 

Howe, Mrs. Julia Ward 73, 183 

Huf eland, Dr., of Germany, 

quoted' 47 

Hughes, author of Tom Brown at 

Oxford, on sowing wild oats 343 

Hugo, Victor 32 

Humphry, Mrs 121 . 

Husband, choice of, 102; council 

for, 305; how to manage 168 

Husband and Wife, quoted 289, 307 

Huxley, Professor, quoted 186 

Hymen, 186; a jewel. 304 



Idiocy, report oa> . . 263 

Ignorance and crime inherited 26 

Illicit pleasures dangerous 326 

Imagination, influences of 259 

Immodest dress 282 

Impregnation, how and when 189 

Impressions, initial, 47; maternal. . 48 

Individuality . . . . 231 

Indulgence, marital 104 

Industry 247 

Influence of a daughter 63 

Ingersoll, Robert 240 

Inheritance, of noted people, 25; of 
crime and ignorance, 26; neutral- 
ized in parentage 37 



PAGE 

Initial impressions 47, 48 

Insanity, 31; leads to 260 

Insects, reproduction of 14 

Intelligence our only safety 258 

Ireland, Archbishop, on social 
purity 337 



Jackson, Helen Hunt, quoted 113 

Jackson, Mrs. President 154 

Jacques, Dr., quoted 300 

Jewish, characteristics, 24; law of 

cleansing 187 

Jews and circumcision 268 

John, only 157 

Jukes family 28, 340 

Jurke family 28 



Keeping up appearances 175 

Kelley, Dr. H. A., on prostitution.. 338 
Kindergartner, the daughter as a. . 66 

King Lear 150 

Kingsley, Professor, quoted 21 

Kisses dangerous 87 

Knowledge is safety 351 



Labor, childbirth, signs of 201 

Ladies' Home Journal 62, 121, 143 

Landau 55 

Land of the Veda. 336 

Large families, celebrities from. . . . 355 

Laughter as a medicine 112 

Legislation and marriage. ......... 36 

Leland Stanford Junior University, 81 

Lemmon, Geo. T., on reading 285 

Leonard, Rev. Dr. A. B., his story, 286 

Les Miserables 32 

Lesson to parents 228 

Letting alone 166 

Lewis, Dr. Dio, quoted 

263, 280, 282, 293 

Libertine, the 295, 369 

Life-blood, masturbation saps 267 

Life, origin of, 11; long, secret of, 

179; real 228 

Limitation of offspring 361 

Lincoln, Abraham 181, 183, 250 

Little things, a story 174 

Livermore, Mrs. Mary A 72, 183 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 



435 



Living simply 176 

Livingstone, David 159, 160 

Longfellow, H. W 249 

Long life, secret of 179 

Love, 289, 290, 291; act, 314; begins 
at the nose, 317; every-day, 153; 
greatest thing in the world, 227; 
the dawn of, 85; real, what is it, 
87; what in man, what in 

woman, 300; poem 223 

Lowell, the poet 249 

Ludwig, Dr .. . 263 

Luther, Martin 256 



M 



Macaulay 248 

MacNicholls, Dr. T. A., his sta- 
tistics ._ 28 

Magnetic influence 308 

Maidenhood 60 

Male principle, semen, 15; reab- 
sorbed 275 

Manhood, noblest traits of 288 

Marital, excess, 309; indulgence. . . 104 

Marking child 194 

Marriage, 291; ceremony, when, 186; 
early, 298; mutual understanding 

concerning 103 

Rev. John Watson on, 161; sacred, 161 

Marriageable age 292 

Married people, rules for, 305; 

young man should know 302 

Marry, age to, 101; time, 103; who 

should and who should not 297 

Masturbation. 258, 259, 266, 267 

Maternal impressions 194 

Maternity, woman's noblest office. . 50 

Maudsley, Dr. Henry, quoted 260 

Maury, Cardinal, quoted 368 

Meat not a necessary food 143 

Medical Journal, Philadelphia, sta- 
tistics 28 

Medical Record, New York 57 

Medical Society of Missouri 57 

Medical Standard 322 

Medical terms, glossary of 417 

Menace to our race 323 

Mental powers transmitted 45 

Menses, suppression of 93 

Menstruation 91 

Michelangelo 248 

Midday nap 116 

Milk 142 



PAGE 

Mill, John Stuart, quoted 359 

Miller, Mrs. Dr., quoted, on self- 
abuse 97 

Millions tainted 322 

Mills, Hon. David, quoted 357 

Mind the source of evil 280 

Minot, Dr.. 57 

Missottri Medical Journal, quoted.. 57 

Mitchell, Maria 183 

Moderation, sexual 187 

Modesty and virtue 86 

Montegazza, Professor, quoted 359 

Moral law, violation of 100 

Morel, M., quoted 27 

Mosaic law 363 

Mosher, Dr., quoted 129 

Mother Bickerdyke 183 

Mother, call to be a, 208; and child, 
207; duty to, 62; prospective, 
freedom of, 192; or wife, 164; in- 
fluence over child 204 

Mothers of great men, 180; relation 
to daughter, 219; tribute to, 219; 

sacrifice 223 

Mothering, need of 207 

Mozart 256 

Murder, rank 353 

Murillo's pictures 71, 72 

Murray-Miller, Maude C, quoted. . 146 

N 

Nagging 159 

Napheys, Dr. Geo. H., quoted, 36, 46, 

49, 93, 186, 262, 274, 303, 306, 351, 359 

Napoleon 181 

Nerve centers in the brain 279 

Nervous system of old men 368 

New Crusade 228 

New lease of life 364 

Newton, A. E., quoted 39, 48, 53 

Newton, Sir Isaac 256, 274 

New York Medical Journal 57 

Nipples, care of : 200 

North American, Philadelphia, 

quoted 168, 169 

Northwestern Christian Advocate. . 173 

Nott, President 182 

Nuptial relations 186 

O 

Ophelia 150 

Opportunity 254 

Origin of life 11 to 18 



436 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 



PAGE 

Othello 150 

Oviparous animals 15 

Ovulation 91 

Ovum, function of 17 

P 

Pace that kills 113 

Pancoast, Dr. S., quoted 55 

Parentage, influence on offspring, 36, 37 

Parenthood, preparation for 42, 43 

Parents, duty to 61 

Parents' duty to children 258 

Parise, Dr., quoted 367, 368 

Parkman, the historian 248 

Parturition 195 

Passion in woman 304 

Patriotism, woman's 183 

Pay as you go 252 

Pearson, Dr. D. K 116, 117 

Pellman, Professor, quoted 28 

Pelvis, cut 96 

Personal appearance 125 

Petrarch 248 

Philadelphia Medical Journal 28 

Physical culture 128 

Physical powers transmitted 44 

Pictures, bad effects 285 

Pitt family 26, 256 

Plain, gifts, 69; talks 303 

Platonic love 291 

Pomeroy, Dr. H. S 352 

Poodle and puny children 356 

Pope, Alexander 180, 181 

Powers, of man, the noblest, 290; 
mental, transmitted, 45; phys- 
ical 44 

Pratt, Dr. B. F., on James A. Gar- 
field 47 

Pregnancy, signs of 190 

Prenatal culture, defined, 39; ex- 
amples of, 51; influence. . .20, 53, 191 

Preparation for parentage 42 

Prostate gland 370 

Prostitution, 334; defined 335 

Protoplasm 11 

Puberty, age and changes, 99; time, 101 
Purity, sexual 271, 337 

Q 

Quickening 190, 348 

R 

Races, characteristics of 23 

Randolph, John 181, 252 

Reading , 285 



PAGE 

Recreation, 133; purpose of 134 

Relation of sexes 303 

Report of Michigan State Board of 

Health on abortion 349 

Rest, necessity of, 109; and work. . . 108 

Reward, the 370 

Rheumatism, gonorrheal 327 

Richter, John Paul 181 

Riddell, N. N., quoted 

. .20, 44, 47, 54, 191, 192, 273, 288, 358 

Riding horseback. 134 

Romance-reading 93 

Romondino, Dr. P. C, on circum- 
cision 269 

Roosevelt, President 247 

Rorer, Mrs. S. T., quoted 143 

Rowing 134 

Rules for Holy Living 305 

Rule, only safe, 189; the safe 281 

Ruskin, quoted 150, 151, 250 



Safe rule, 281; only 189 

Sangster, Mrs. Margaret, quoted, 64, 81 

Sanitation 376 

Saur, Mrs. Dr. P. B 353 

Scarlet Letter, the 152 

Scott, Dr. James Foster, quoted. .. 

40, 288, 324, 325, 330, 337, 338 

Scott, Sir Walter 25, 151 

Secret of a long life 179 

Secret vice 259 

"Seeing to things" 113 

Select class 33 

Self-abuse, 259, 263; causes leading 

to 265 

Self and Sex Series, quoted 302 

Self-control, and happiness, 313; of 

parents and children 213 

Self -pollution 94, 259, 262, 266 

Semen, analyzed, 16; loss of, 266; 

loss not necessary to health 272 

Separate beds 188 

Sexes, the two, same standard for 

both ■. 292 

Sex-force in man 273 

Sexual, enjoyment mutual, 313 to 

319; embrace, 302; passions. .304, 305 

Sexual Instinct, quoted 288, 338 

Sexuality 289 

Shakespeare 150 

Shepherd, Mrs. E. R., quoted. .138, 139 
Sherman, W. T 55 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 



437 



PAGE 

Shoes 138 

Sick-room, the daughter in 65, 66 

Sigourney, Mrs., quoted 59, 60 

Simple living 176 

Sin, inexcusable 285 

Sinclair, Rev. B. D 350, 354 

Singing 135 

Single beds 119 

Sinners, the two 295 

Sitting, manner of 131 

Sitzbath 199 

Skating 134 

Skirts, long, evils of 137, 138 

Slang 83 

Slavery 293 

Sleep 114 

Sleeping-rooms, 117; for children . . 206 

Small families 358 

Smith, Mrs. Mary Roberts, her 

records 81 

Social abuse 178 

Social purity our goal. .♦. 283 

Sophocles 365 

Sowing wild oats 343 

Spencer, Herbert, quoted 188, 359 

Spermatorrhea, 320; causes of, 321; 

treatment 321 

Spermatozoa, 16, 18; cut of 16, 17 

Sperry, Dr. Lyman B., quoted. .49, 

259, 261, 289, 304, 307, 308, 336, 367 

Spurgeon 152 

Stall, Dr. Sylvanus, quoted 

37, 302,338, 340, 366 

Standard of virtue 292, 294 

Standing erect 129 

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady 195 

Statistics and facts 30, 31, 326, 342 

Stealing propensity 54 

Steam heating 379 

Sterile women 325 

Stevenson, Mrs 163 

Stevenson, Robert Louis 251 

Stimulants, effects of 97 

Stockham, Dr. Alice, quoted 

46,92, 314, 316 

Stowe, Harriet Beecher 183 

Struggle, chastity a 271 

Sturgis, Dr. F. R 322 

Success and opportunity 254 

Suppression of menses 93 

Suspenders, ladies* : . 139 

Sweet, Ada C, quoted Ill 

Sympathy, mistaken, 232; starving 

for 234, 238 



PAGE 

Syphilis, contracted innocently, 
334; hereditary, 330; history of, 
328; incurable, 100, 322; investi- 
gation of, by Mr. Dugdale, 341; 
three periods 329 

Syphilitic virus 100, 101 

T 

Tact 221 

Tascott, S. H., quoted! ............ 40 

Taylor, Dr., q loted 325 

Tea and coffee 142 

Teacher's duty, 258; testimony 262 

Teachings, false 272 

Teeth, care of 123 

Temperaments, 299; balance of 301 

Tennyson, Alfred, on purity of 

thought 345 

Testimony of wise men 365 

Thoughts, controlling 281 

Tight clothing, evil effects of 106 

Tilit, Dr 360 

Todd, Rev. John 260 

Tokology 92, 316 

Tolstoi, Count 174 

Trade-mark can not be hidden 339 

Training, an outrageous 232 

Treacherous and baneful gonor- 
rhea 324 

Tribute to mothers 180 



Valentine, Dr. F. C, quoted ... 325, 326 

Van Swieten, Dr 263 

Varley, Rev. Henry, on excess, 309, 

330; quoted 26 

Veda, the land of 336 

Vegetable foods 142 

Venereal diseases 319, 323 

Ventilate, how to 377 

Ventilation 117, 372 

Virtue, the same standard for 292 

Vital forces of system 93 

Vitality, use of 106 

Viviparous animals 15 

W 

Walking, value of 132 

Warman, Ed. B., quoted 120, 121 

Warning against unchastity 271 

Washington, Booker T 181 



438 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 



PAGE 

Water as a beautifier 146 

Watson, Rev. John, quoted, 278; on 

marriage 161 

Wealth, the daughter of 84 

Wesley, John and Charles 25, 181 

Wesmann, Prof. A., his theory of 

heredity, 23 

West, Benjamin 181 

"White life for two" 100, 295 

Wife, a comrade, 162; or mother, 

164; well-read, in home 171 

Wilcox, Mrs. Ella Wheeler 295 

Willard, Frances E 25, 52, 100 

Wind curtains, description of 118 

Winning qualities 74 

Wives' relation to husband 155 

Woman, Christ's tribute to, 184; ele- 
vation of, in Christian lands 184 

Woman 's Home Companion 18, 69 

Woman's, influence on man, 151; 
patriotism, 183; relation to man, 
150; sympathy 152 



PAGE 

Women, sterile 325, 362 

Wordsworth, the poet 249 

Work, quotation from President 

Roosevelt, 247; and rest 108 

World, New York, quoted 82, 113 

Worry, strive against 110 

Wright, Henry G., quoted 103 

Wrongdoers will suffer wrong 285 



Young married man, what he should 
know . . , . 302 

Young men, famous, 256; what he 
should know 288 

Youth's Companion, quoted 255 

Youthful love 290 

Z 

Zioris Herald 73 



JUN 1 1903 



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